Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is the 45th and current president of the United States.

Before entering politics, he was a businessman and television personality.

Trump was born and raised in Queens, a borough of New York City. He attended Fordham
University for two years and received a bachelor's degree in economics from the Wharton School of
the University of Pennsylvania. He became president of his father's real-estate business in 1971,
renamed it The Trump Organization, and expanded its operations to building or renovating
skyscrapers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses. Trump later started various side ventures, mostly by
licensing his name. Trump and his businesses have been involved in more than 4,000 state and
federal legal actions, including six bankruptcies. He owned the Miss Universe brand of beauty
pageants from 1996 to 2015. He produced and hosted The Apprentice, a reality television series,
from 2003 to 2015. As of April 2020, Forbes estimated his net worth to be $2.1 billion.[a]
Trump's political positions have been described as populist, protectionist, and nationalist. He entered
the 2016 presidential race as a Republican and was elected in a surprise victory
over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, although he lost the popular vote.[b] He became the
oldest first-term U.S. president,[c] and the first without prior military or government service. His
election and policies have sparked numerous protests. Trump has made many false or misleading
statements during his campaign and presidency. The statements have been documented by fact-
checkers, and the media have widely described the phenomenon as unprecedented in American
politics. Many of his comments and actions have been characterized as racially charged or racist.
During his presidency, Trump ordered a travel ban on citizens from several Muslim-majority
countries, citing security concerns; after legal challenges, the Supreme Court upheld the policy's
third revision. He enacted a tax-cut package for individuals and businesses, rescinding the individual
health insurance mandate penalty. He appointed Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme
Court. In foreign policy, Trump has pursued an America First agenda, withdrawing the U.S. from
the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations, the Paris Agreement on climate change, and
the Iran nuclear deal. He imposed import tariffs which triggered a trade war with China, recognized
Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and withdrew U.S. troops from northern Syria. Trump met three
times with North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un, but talks on denuclearization broke down in 2019.
Trump reacted slowly to the COVID-19 pandemic; he minimized the threat, ignored or contradicted
many recommendations from health officials, and promoted false information about unproven
treatments and the availability of testing. He is seeking a second term as the Republican nominee in
the 2020 presidential election.
A special counsel investigation led by Robert Mueller found that Trump and his campaign welcomed
and encouraged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election under the belief that it would
be politically advantageous, but did not find sufficient evidence to press charges of criminal
conspiracy or coordination with Russia.[d] Mueller also investigated Trump for obstruction of justice,
and his report neither indicted nor exonerated Trump on that offense. After Trump solicited Ukraine
to investigate his political rival Joe Biden, the House of Representatives impeached him in
December 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The Senate acquitted him of both
charges in February 2020.

Contents

 1Personal life
o 1.1Early life
o 1.2Family
o 1.3Religion
o 1.4Health and lifestyle
 o 1.5Wealth
 2Business career
o 2.1Real estate
o 2.2Branding and licensing
o 2.3Legal affairs and bankruptcies
o 2.4Side ventures
o 2.5Foundation
o 2.6Conflicts of interest
 3Media career
o 3.1Books
o 3.2WWE
o 3.3The Apprentice
o 3.4Acting
o 3.5Talk shows
 4Political career
o 4.1Political activities up to 2015
o 4.22016 presidential campaign
o 4.3Election to the presidency
o 4.4Protests
o 4.52020 presidential campaign
 5Presidency
o 5.1Early actions
o 5.2Domestic policy
o 5.3Immigration
o 5.4Foreign policy
o 5.5Personnel
o 5.6COVID-19 pandemic
o 5.7Lafayette Square protester removal and photo op
o 5.8Investigations
o 5.9Impeachment
 6Public profile
o 6.1Approval ratings
o 6.2Social media
o 6.3False statements
o 6.4Promotion of conspiracy theories
o 6.5Relationship with the press
o 6.6Racial views
o 6.7Comments about women
o 6.8Allegations of sexual misconduct
o 6.9Allegations of inciting violence
o 6.10Popular culture
o 6.11Recognition
 7Notes
 8References
o 8.1Works cited
 9External links
Personal life
Early life

1964 New York Military Academy yearbook photo

Trump was born on June 14, 1946, at Jamaica Hospital in the borough of Queens, New York City.[1]
[2]
 His father was Frederick Christ Trump, a Bronx-born real estate developer whose parents were
German immigrants. His mother was Scottish-born housewife Mary Anne MacLeod Trump. Trump
grew up in the Jamaica Estates neighborhood of Queens and attended the Kew-Forest School from
kindergarten through seventh grade.[3][4] At age 13, he was enrolled in the New York Military
Academy, a private boarding school.[5] In 1964, he enrolled at Fordham University. Two years later
he transferred to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in May 1968 with
a B.S. in economics.[6][7] Profiles of Trump published in The New York Times in 1973 and 1976
erroneously reported that he had graduated first in his class at Wharton, but he had never made the
school's honor roll.[8] In 2015, Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen threatened Fordham University and the
New York Military Academy with legal action if they released Trump's academic records.[9]
Military deferment
While in college, Trump obtained four student draft deferments.[10] In 1966, he was deemed fit for
military service based upon a medical examination, and in July 1968 a local draft board classified
him as eligible to serve.[11] In October 1968, he was medically deferred and classified 1-Y (unqualified
for duty except in the case of a national emergency).[12] In 1972, he was reclassified 4-F due to bone
spurs, which permanently disqualified him from service.[13][14] Trump said in 2015 the deferment was
for a bone spur in his foot, but could not remember which foot.[12]

Family
Main article: Family of Donald Trump
Further information: Trump family
Parents and siblings
Main articles: Fred Trump and Mary Anne MacLeod Trump
Fred Trump started working in real estate with his mother Elizabeth when he was 15, after his
father Friedrich had died in the 1918 flu pandemic.[15] By 1926, their company, "E. Trump & Son", was
active in the New York boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn.[16] It would grow to build and sell tens of
thousands of houses, barracks, and apartments.[17][18] Fred claimed to be Swedish amid the anti-
German sentiment sparked by World War II;[19] Donald Trump also claimed Swedish heritage until
1990.[20] Trump's mother Mary Anne MacLeod was born in Scotland.[21] Fred and Mary were married
in 1936 and raised their family in Queens.[20] Trump grew up with three elder siblings – Maryanne,
Fred Jr., and Elizabeth – and younger brother Robert.[22]
Wives and children

Trump is sworn in as president by Chief Justice John Roberts on January 20, 2017. From left: Trump,
wife Melania, and his children Donald Jr., Barron, Ivanka, Eric, and Tiffany.

In 1977, Trump married Czech model Ivana Zelníčková.[23] They have three children, Donald Jr. (born

1977), Ivanka (born 1981), and Eric (born 1984), and ten grandchildren.[24] Ivana became a
naturalized United States citizen in 1988.[25] The couple divorced in 1992, following Trump's affair
with actress Marla Maples.[26] Maples and Trump married in 1993[27] and had one
daughter, Tiffany (born 1993).[28] They were divorced in 1999,[29] and Tiffany was raised by Marla in
California.[30] In 2005, Trump married Slovenian model Melania Knauss.[31] They have one
son, Barron (born 2006).[32] Melania gained U.S. citizenship in 2006.[33]

Religion
Trump identifies as Presbyterian. He went to Sunday school and was confirmed in 1959 at the First
Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, Queens.[34][35] In the 1970s, his parents joined the Marble Collegiate
Church in Manhattan, which belongs to the Reformed Church.[34][36] The pastor at Marble, Norman
Vincent Peale,[34] ministered to Trump's family until Peale's death in 1993.[36] Trump has described
Peale as a mentor.[37] In 2015, after Trump said he attends Marble, the church publicly stated he "is
not an active member" of the church.[35] In November 2019, Trump appointed his personal pastor,
televangelist Paula White, to the White House Office of Public Liaison.[38]

Health and lifestyle

Trump abstains from alcohol.[39] He says he has never smoked cigarettes or cannabis.[40] He likes fast
food and French cuisine.[41][42] He has said he prefers three to four hours of sleep per night.[43] He has
called golfing his "primary form of exercise", although he usually does not walk the course.[44] He
considers exercise a waste of energy, because he believes the body is "like a battery, with a finite
amount of energy" which is depleted by exercise.[45]
In December 2015, Harold Bornstein, who had been Trump's personal physician since 1980, wrote
that Trump would "be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency" in a letter released by
the Trump campaign.[46] In May 2018, Bornstein said Trump had dictated the contents of the letter
and that three agents of Trump had removed his medical records in February 2017 without due
authorization.[46][47]
In January 2018, White House physician Ronny Jackson said Trump was in excellent health and that
his cardiac assessment revealed no issues.[48] Several outside cardiologists commented that Trump's
2018 LDL cholesterol level of 143 did not indicate excellent health.[49] In February 2019, after a new
examination, White House physician Sean Conley said Trump was in "very good health overall",
although he was clinically obese.[50] His 2019 coronary CT calcium scan score indicates he suffers
from a form of coronary artery disease common for white men of his age.[51]
In June 2020, Conley released a memorandum saying "the data indicates that the President remains
healthy."[52][53] The memorandum was not the usual report issued after the annual physical exam. It
summarized medical appointments that had taken place between November 2019 and 2020.[52]

Wealth
Main article: Wealth of Donald Trump
See also: Tax returns of Donald Trump

Trump and wife Ivana in the receiving line of a state dinner for King Fahd of Saudi Arabia in 1985,[54] with U.S.
president Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan

In 1982, Trump was listed on the initial Forbes list of wealthy individuals as having a share of his
family's estimated $200 million net worth. His financial losses in the 1980s caused him to be dropped
from the list between 1990 and 1995.[55] In its 2020 billionaires ranking, Forbes estimated Trump's net
worth at $2.1 billion[a] (1,001st in the world, 275th in the U.S.)[58] making him one of the richest
politicians in American history and the first billionaire American president.[58] During the three years
since Trump announced his presidential run in 2015, Forbes estimated his net worth declined 31%
and his ranking fell 138 spots.[59] When he filed mandatory financial disclosure forms with the Federal
Elections Commission (FEC) in July 2015, Trump claimed a net worth of about $10 billion;
[60]
 however, FEC figures cannot corroborate this estimate because they only show each of his
largest buildings as being worth over $50 million, yielding total assets worth more than $1.4 billion
and debt over $265 million.[61] Trump said in a 2007 deposition, "My net worth fluctuates, and it goes
up and down with markets and with attitudes and with feelings, even my own feelings."[62]
Journalist Jonathan Greenberg reported in April 2018 that Trump, using the pseudonym "John
Barron" and claiming to be a Trump Organization official, called him in 1984 to falsely assert that he
owned "in excess of ninety percent" of the Trump family's business, to secure a higher ranking on
the Forbes 400 list of wealthy Americans. Greenberg also wrote that Forbes had vastly
overestimated Trump's wealth and wrongly included him on the Forbes 400 rankings of 1982, 1983,
and 1984.[63]
Trump has often said he began his career with "a small loan of one million dollars" from his father,
and that he had to pay it back with interest.[64] In October 2018, The New York Times reported that
Trump "was a millionaire by age 8", borrowed at least $60 million from his father, largely failed to
reimburse him, and had received $413 million (adjusted for inflation) from his father's business
empire over his lifetime.[65][66] According to the report, Trump and his family committed tax fraud, which
a lawyer for Trump denied. The tax department of New York said it is "vigorously pursuing all
appropriate avenues of investigation" into it.[67][68] Analyses by The Economist and The Washington
Post have concluded that Trump's investments underperformed the stock market.[69][70] Forbes
estimated in October 2018 that the value of Trump's personal brand licensing business had declined
by 88% since 2015, to $3 million.[71]
Trump's tax returns from 1985 to 1994 show net losses totaling $1.17 billion over the ten-year
period, in contrast to his claims about his financial health and business abilities. The New York
Times reported that "year after year, Mr. Trump appears to have lost more money than nearly any
other individual American taxpayer," and Trump's "core business losses in 1990 and 1991 – more
than $250 million each year – were more than double those of the nearest taxpayers in the I.R.S.
information for those years". In 1995 his reported losses were $915.7 million.[72][73]
Business career
Main article: Business career of Donald Trump
Further information: Business projects of Donald Trump in Russia

Real estate

Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan

While a student at Wharton and after graduating in 1968, Trump worked at his father Fred's real
estate company, Trump Management, which owned middle-class rental housing in New York City's
outer boroughs.[74][75][76] In 1971, he became president of the company and began using The Trump
Organization as an umbrella brand.[77] The business had previously used the names Fred C. Trump
Organization,[78][79] Fred Trump Organization,[80][81] and Trump Organization,[82] but had not had a single
formal name. It was registered as a corporation in 1981.[83]
Manhattan developments
Trump attracted public attention in 1978 with the launch of his family's first Manhattan venture, the
renovation of the derelict Commodore Hotel, adjacent to Grand Central Terminal. The financing was
facilitated by a $400 million city property tax abatement arranged by Fred Trump,[84] who also joined
Hyatt in guaranteeing $70 million in bank construction financing.[85][86] The hotel reopened in 1980 as
the Grand Hyatt Hotel,[87] and that same year, Trump obtained rights to develop Trump Tower,
a mixed-use skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan.[88] The building houses the headquarters of the
Trump Organization and was Trump's primary residence until 2019.[89][90]
In 1988, Trump acquired the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan with a loan of $425 million from a consortium
of banks. Two years later, the hotel filed for bankruptcy protection, and a reorganization plan was
approved in 1992.[91] In 1995, Trump lost the hotel to Citibank and investors from Singapore and
Saudi Arabia, who assumed $300 million of the debt.[92][93]
In 1996, Trump acquired a vacant 71-story skyscraper at 40 Wall Street. After an extensive
renovation, the high-rise was renamed the Trump Building.[94] In the early 1990s, Trump won the right
to develop a 70-acre (28 ha) tract in the Lincoln Square neighborhood near the Hudson River.
Struggling with debt from other ventures in 1994, Trump sold most of his interest in the project to
Asian investors who were able to finance completion of the project, Riverside South.[95]
Palm Beach estate
Main article: Mar-a-Lago
Mar-a-Lago in 2009

In 1985, Trump acquired the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.[96] Trump used a wing of the
estate as a home, while converting the remainder into a private club with an initiation fee and annual
dues.[97] On September 27, 2019, Trump declared Mar-a-Lago his primary residence.[90]
Atlantic City casinos

Entrance of the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City

In 1984, Trump opened Harrah's at Trump Plaza hotel and casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, with
financing from the Holiday Corporation, who also managed the operation. Gambling had been
legalized there in 1977 to revitalize the once-popular seaside destination.[98] The property's poor
financial results worsened tensions between Holiday and Trump, who paid Holiday $70 million in
May 1986 to take sole control of the property.[99] Earlier, Trump had also acquired a partially
completed building in Atlantic City from the Hilton Corporation for $320 million. Upon its completion
in 1985, that hotel and casino were called Trump Castle. Trump's then-wife Ivana managed it until
1988.[100][101]
Trump acquired a third casino in Atlantic City, the Taj Mahal, in 1988 in a highly leveraged
transaction.[102] It was financed with $675 million in junk bonds and completed at a cost of $1.1 billion,
opening in April 1990.[103][104][105] The project went bankrupt the following year,[104] and the reorganization
left Trump with only half his initial ownership stake and required him to pledge personal guarantees
of future performance.[106] Facing "enormous debt", he gave up control of his money-losing
airline, Trump Shuttle, and sold his 282-foot (86 m) mega yacht, the Trump Princess, which had
been indefinitely docked in Atlantic City while leased to his casinos for use by wealthy gamblers.[107][108]
In 1995, Trump founded Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts (THCR), which assumed ownership of
Trump Plaza, Trump Castle, and the Trump Casino in Gary, Indiana.[109] THCR purchased the Taj
Mahal in 1996 and underwent successive bankruptcies in 2004, 2009, and 2014, leaving Trump with
only ten percent ownership.[110] He remained chairman of THCR until 2009.[111]
Golf courses
Main article: Donald Trump and golf
The Trump Organization began acquiring and constructing golf courses in 1999.[112] It owned 16 golf
courses and resorts worldwide and operated another two as of December 2016. His 2015 golf and
resort revenue amounted to $382 million.[113]
From his inauguration until the end of 2019, Trump spent around one of every five days at one of his
golf clubs.[114]

Branding and licensing

See also: List of things named after Donald Trump

Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago

After the Trump Organization's financial losses in the early 1990s, it refocused its business on
branding and licensing the Trump name for projects owned and operated by other people and
companies.[115] In the late 2000s and early 2010s, it expanded this branding and management
business to hotel towers located around the world, including Chicago; Las Vegas; Washington,
D.C.; Panama City; Toronto; and Vancouver. There were also Trump-branded buildings in
Dubai, Honolulu, Istanbul, Manila, Mumbai, and Indonesia.[116]
The Trump name has also been licensed for various consumer products and services, including
foodstuffs, apparel, adult learning courses, and home furnishings.[117][118] According to an analysis
by The Washington Post, there are more than fifty licensing or management deals involving Trump's
name, which have generated at least $59 million in yearly revenue for his companies.[119] By 2018
only two consumer goods companies continued to license his name.[118]

Legal affairs and bankruptcies

Main articles: Legal affairs of Donald Trump and List of lawsuits involving Donald Trump
Fixer Roy Cohn served as Trump's lawyer and mentor in the 1970s and 1980s, with a 13-year
relationship.[120][121] According to Trump, they were so close that Cohn sometimes waived fees due to
their friendship.[75] In 1973, Cohn helped Trump counter-sue the United States government for
$100 million over its charges that Trump's properties had racial discriminatory practices; in 1975 an
agreement was struck for Trump's properties to change their practices.[122] It was Cohn who
introduced political consultant Roger Stone to Trump, who enlisted Stone's services to deal with the
federal government.[123]
As of April 2018, Trump and his businesses had been involved in more than 4,000 state and federal
legal actions, according to a running tally by USA Today.[124] As of 2016, he or one of his companies
had been the plaintiff in 1,900 cases and the defendant in 1,450.[125]
While Trump has not filed for personal bankruptcy, his over-leveraged hotel and casino businesses
in Atlantic City and New York filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection six times between 1991 and
2009.[126][127] They continued to operate while the banks restructured debt and reduced Trump's shares
in the properties.[126][127]
During the 1980s, more than 70 banks had lent Trump $4 billion,[128] but in the aftermath of his
corporate bankruptcies of the early 1990s, most major banks declined to lend to him, with
only Deutsche Bank still willing to lend money.[129]
In April 2019, the House Oversight Committee issued subpoenas seeking financial details from
Trump's banks, Deutsche Bank and Capital One, and his accounting firm, Mazars USA. In response,
Trump sued the banks, Mazars, and committee chairman Elijah Cummings to prevent the
disclosures.[130][131] In May, DC District Court judge Amit Mehta ruled that Mazars must comply with the
subpoena,[132] and judge Edgardo Ramos of the Southern District Court of New York ruled that the
banks must also comply.[133][134] Trump's attorneys appealed the rulings,[135] arguing that Congress was
attempting to usurp the "exercise of law-enforcement authority that the Constitution reserves to the
executive branch".[136][137]

Side ventures
In September 1983, Trump purchased the New Jersey Generals, a team in the United States
Football League. After the 1985 season, the league folded largely due to Trump's strategy of moving
games to a fall schedule where they competed with the NFL for audience, and trying to force a
merger with the NFL by bringing an antitrust suit against the organization.[138][139]
Trump's businesses have hosted several boxing matches at the Atlantic City Convention
Hall adjacent to and promoted as taking place at the Trump Plaza in Atlantic City.[140][141] In 1989 and
1990, Trump lent his name to the Tour de Trump cycling stage race, which was an attempt to create
an American equivalent of European races such as the Tour de France or the Giro d'Italia.[142]
In the late 1980s, Trump mimicked the actions of Wall Street's so-called corporate raiders, whose
tactics had attracted wide public attention. Trump began to purchase significant blocks of shares in
various public companies, leading some observers to think he was engaged in the practice
called greenmail, or feigning the intent to acquire the companies and then pressuring management
to repurchase the buyer's stake at a premium. The New York Times found that Trump initially made
millions of dollars in such stock transactions, but later "lost most, if not all, of those gains after
investors stopped taking his takeover talk seriously".[72][143][144]
In 1988, Trump purchased the defunct Eastern Air Lines shuttle, with 21 planes and landing rights in
New York City, Boston, and Washington, D.C. He financed the purchase with $380 million from 22
banks, rebranded the operation the Trump Shuttle, and operated it until 1992. Trump failed to earn a
profit with the airline and sold it to USAir.[145]

Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

In 1992, Trump, his siblings Maryanne, Elizabeth, and Robert, and cousin John W. Walter, each with
a 20 percent share, formed All County Building Supply & Maintenance Corp. The company had no
offices and is alleged to have been a shell company for paying the vendors providing services and
supplies for Trump's rental units, and then billing those services and supplies to Trump Management
with markups of 20–50 percent and more. The proceeds generated by the markups were shared by
the owners.[66][146] The increased costs were used as justification to get state approval for increasing
the rents of Trump's rent-stabilized units.[66]
From 1996 to 2015, Trump owned all or part of the Miss Universe pageants, including Miss
USA and Miss Teen USA.[147][148] Due to disagreements with CBS about scheduling, he took both
pageants to NBC in 2002.[149][150] In 2007, Trump received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for
his work as producer of Miss Universe.[151] After NBC and Univision dropped the pageants from their
broadcasting lineups in June 2015,[152] Trump bought NBC's share of the Miss Universe Organization
and sold the entire company to the William Morris talent agency.[147]
Trump University
Main article: Trump University
In 2004, Trump co-founded a company called Trump University which sold real estate training
courses priced from $1,500 to $35,000.[153][154] After New York State authorities notified the company
that its use of the word "university" violated state law, its name was changed to Trump Entrepreneur
Initiative in 2010.[155]
In 2013, the State of New York filed a $40 million civil suit against Trump University; the suit alleged
that the company made false statements and defrauded consumers.[156][157] In addition, two class
actions were filed in federal court; they named Trump personally as well as his companies. Internal
documents revealed that employees were instructed to use a hard-sell approach, and former
employees said in depositions that Trump University had defrauded or lied to its students.[158][159]
[160]
 Shortly after he won the presidency, Trump agreed to pay a total of $25 million to settle the three
cases.[161]

Foundation
Main article: Donald J. Trump Foundation
The Donald J. Trump Foundation was a U.S.-based private foundation established in 1988 for the
initial purpose of giving away proceeds from the book Trump: The Art of the Deal.[162][163] In the
foundation's final years its funds mostly came from donors other than Trump, who did not donate any
personal funds to the charity from 2009 until 2014.[164] The foundation gave to health care and sports-
related charities, as well as conservative groups.[165]
In 2016, The Washington Post reported that the charity had committed several potential legal and
ethical violations, including alleged self-dealing and possible tax evasion.[166] Also in 2016, the New
York State Attorney General's office said the foundation appeared to be in violation of New York
laws regarding charities and ordered it to immediately cease its fundraising activities in New York.[167]
[168]
 Trump's team announced in late December 2016 that the foundation would be dissolved to
remove "even the appearance of any conflict with [his] role as President".[169]
In June 2018 the New York attorney general's office filed a civil suit against the foundation, Trump
himself, and his adult children, asking for $2.8 million in restitution and additional penalties.[170][171] In
December 2018, the foundation ceased operation and disbursed all its assets to other charities.
[172]
 The following November, a New York state judge ordered Trump to pay $2 million to a group of
charities for misusing the foundation's funds, in part to finance his presidential campaign.[173][174]

Conflicts of interest
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, then the prime minister of Turkey, attended the opening of Trump Towers
Istanbul AVM in 2012.

Before being inaugurated as president, Trump moved his businesses into a revocable trust run by
his eldest sons and a business associate.[175][176] According to ethics experts, measures taken by
Trump do not help avoid conflicts of interest as long as he continues to profit from his businesses.
[177]
 Because Trump would have knowledge of how his administration's policies affect his businesses,
ethics experts recommend selling the businesses.[176] Though Trump said he would eschew "new
foreign deals", the Trump Organization has since pursued expansions of its operations in Dubai,
Scotland, and the Dominican Republic.[177]
Multiple lawsuits have been filed alleging that Trump is violating the Emoluments Clause of
the United States Constitution, which forbids presidents from taking money from foreign
governments, due to his business interests; they argue that these interests allow foreign
governments to influence him.[177][178] Previous presidents in the modern era have either divested their
holdings or put them in blind trusts,[175] and he is the first president to be sued over the emoluments
clause.[178] According to The Guardian, "NBC News recently calculated that representatives of at least
22 foreign governments – including some facing charges of corruption or human rights abuses such
as Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Turkey and the Philippines – seem to have spent funds at Trump
properties while he has been president."[179] On October 21, 2019, Trump mocked the Emoluments
Clause as "phony".[180]
In 2015, Trump said he "makes a lot of money with" the Saudis and that "they pay me millions and
hundreds of millions."[181] And at a political rally, Trump said about Saudi Arabia: "They buy
apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them
very much."[182]
In December 2015, Trump said in a radio interview that he had a "conflict of interest" in dealing
with Turkey and Turkish president Tayyip Erdoğan because of his Trump Towers Istanbul, saying "I
have a little conflict of interest because I have a major, major building in Istanbul and it's a
tremendously successful job ... It's called Trump Towers – two towers instead of one ... I've gotten to
know Turkey very well."[183][184]

Media career
Main article: Media career of Donald Trump

Books
Main article: Bibliography of Donald Trump
Trump's first book, The Art of the Deal (1987), was on the New York Times Best Seller list for 48
weeks. According to The New Yorker, "The book expanded Trump's renown far beyond New York
City, promoting an image of himself as a successful dealmaker and tycoon." Trump was credited as
the book's co-author with Tony Schwartz, who later said he had done all the writing; this was
confirmed by former Random House head Howard Kaminsky.[185] Trump has called the book his
second favorite after the Bible.[186]
Two lesser memoirs were published in 1990 and 1997, and various other books have been
published under Trump's name.

WWE
Trump has had a sporadic relationship with the professional wrestling promotion WWE (World
Wrestling Federation/Entertainment) since the late 1980s.[187][188] He headlined the record-
breaking WrestleMania 23 in 2007 and was inducted into the celebrity wing of the WWE Hall of
Fame in 2013.[189] WWE co-founder and former CEO Linda McMahon later worked in his
administration and election campaigns.[189]

The Apprentice
Main article: The Apprentice (American TV series)
In 2003, Trump became the co-producer and host of The Apprentice, a reality show in which Trump
played the role of a powerful chief executive and contestants competed for a year of employment at
the Trump Organization. Trump winnowed out contestants with his famous catchphrase "You're
fired".[190] He later co-hosted The Celebrity Apprentice, in which celebrities competed to win money
for charities.[190]

Acting
Main article: Donald Trump filmography
Trump has made cameo appearances in eight films and television shows[191][192] and performed a song
as a Green Acres character with Megan Mullally at the 57th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2005.[193]

Talk shows
Starting in the 1990s, Trump was a guest about 24 times on the nationally syndicated Howard Stern
Show.[194] He also had his own short-form talk radio program called Trumped! (one to two minutes on
weekdays) from 2004 to 2008.[195][196] In 2011, he was given a weekly unpaid guest commentator spot
on Fox & Friends which continued until he started his presidential candidacy in 2015.[197][198]

Political career
Main article: Political career of Donald Trump

Political activities up to 2015

Trump and President Bill Clinton in June 2000

Trump's political party affiliation changed numerous times. He registered as a Republican in

Manhattan in 1987, switched to the Reform Party in 1999, the Democratic Party in 2001, and back to
the Republican Party in 2009.[199]
In 1987, Trump placed full-page advertisements in three major newspapers,[200] advocating peace in
Central America, accelerated nuclear disarmament talks with the Soviet Union, and reduction of the
federal budget deficit by making American allies pay "their fair share" for military defense.[201] He ruled
out running for local office but not for the presidency.[200]
2000 presidential campaign
Main article: Donald Trump 2000 presidential campaign
In 1999, Trump filed an exploratory committee to seek the nomination of the Reform Party for the
2000 presidential election.[202][203] A July 1999 poll matching him against likely Republican
nominee George W. Bush and likely Democratic nominee Al Gore showed Trump with seven
percent support.[204] Trump dropped out of the race in February 2000.[205]
2012 presidential speculation

Trump speaking at CPAC 2011

Trump speculated about running for president in the 2012 election, making his first speaking
appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in February 2011 and giving
speeches in early primary states.[206][207] In May 2011 he announced he would not run.[206]
Trump's presidential ambitions were generally not taken seriously at the time.[208] Before the 2016
election, The New York Times speculated that Trump "accelerated his ferocious efforts to gain
stature within the political world" after Obama lampooned him at the White House Correspondents'
Association Dinner in April 2011.[209]
In 2011, the superintendent of the New York Military Academy at the time, Jeffrey Coverdale,
ordered the headmaster of the school, Evan Jones, to give him Trump's academic records so he
could keep them secret, according to Jones. Coverdale confirmed that he had been asked to hand
the records over to members of the school's board of trustees who were Trump's friends, but he
refused to and instead sealed them on campus. The incident reportedly happened days after Trump
demanded the release of President Barack Obama's academic records.[210]
2013–2015
In 2013, Trump spoke at CPAC again;[211] he railed against illegal immigration, bemoaned Obama's
"unprecedented media protection", advised against harming Medicare, Medicaid, and Social
Security, and suggested the government "take" Iraq's oil and use the proceeds to pay a million
dollars each to families of dead soldiers.[212][213] He spent over $1 million that year to research a
possible 2016 candidacy.[214]
In October 2013, New York Republicans circulated a memo suggesting Trump should run for
governor of the state in 2014 against Andrew Cuomo. Trump responded that while New York had
problems and its taxes were too high, he was not interested in the governorship.[215] A February 2014
Quinnipiac poll had shown Trump losing to the more popular Cuomo by 37 points in a hypothetical
election.[216]
According to Trump's attorney Michael Cohen, in May 2015 he sent letters to the New York Military
Academy and Fordham, threatening legal action if the schools ever released Trump's grades or SAT
scores; Fordham confirmed receipt of the letter as well as a phone call from a member of the Trump
team.[217]

2016 presidential campaign

Main article: Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign
Republican primaries
See also: 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries

Trump campaigning in Laconia, New Hampshire, July 2015

On June 16, 2015, Trump announced his candidacy for President of the United States in
what Politico called a "bizarre spectacle" at Trump Tower in Manhattan.[218][219] His campaign was
initially not taken seriously by political analysts, but he quickly rose to the top of opinion polls.[220]
On Super Tuesday, Trump received the most votes, and he remained the front-runner throughout
the primaries.[221] After a landslide win in Indiana on May 3, 2016 – which prompted the remaining
candidates Cruz and John Kasich to suspend their presidential campaigns – RNC chairman Reince
Priebus declared Trump the presumptive Republican nominee.[222]
General election campaign
Clinton had a significant lead over Trump in national polls throughout most of 2016. In early July, her
lead narrowed in national polling averages.[223][224][225]

Candidate Trump and running mate Mike Pence at the Republican National Convention, July 2016

On July 15, 2016, Trump announced his selection of Indiana governor Mike Pence as his running
mate.[226] Four days later, the two were officially nominated by the Republican Party at the Republican
National Convention.[227]
On September 26, 2016, Trump and Clinton faced off in their first presidential debate, which was
held at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.[228] The second presidential debate was held
at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. The final presidential debate was held on October 19
at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Trump's refusal to say whether he would accept the result of
the election, regardless of the outcome, drew particular attention, with some saying it undermined
democracy.[229][230]
Political positions
Main article: Political positions of Donald Trump
Trump's campaign platform emphasized renegotiating U.S.–China relations and free trade
agreements such as NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, strongly enforcing immigration laws,
and building a new wall along the U.S.–Mexico border. His other campaign positions included
pursuing energy independence while opposing climate change regulations such as the Clean Power
Plan and the Paris Agreement, modernizing and expediting services for veterans, repealing and
replacing the Affordable Care Act, abolishing Common Core education standards, investing in
infrastructure, simplifying the tax code while reducing taxes for all economic classes, and
imposing tariffs on imports by companies that offshore jobs. During the campaign, he also advocated
a largely non-interventionist approach to foreign policy while increasing military spending, extreme
vetting or banning immigrants from Muslim-majority countries[231] to pre-empt domestic Islamic
terrorism, and aggressive military action against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. During the
campaign Trump repeatedly called NATO "obsolete".[232][233]
His political positions have been described as populist,[234][235][236] and some of his views cross party
lines. For example, his economic campaign plan calls for deregulation and large reductions in
income taxes, consistent with Republican Party policies,[237] along with significant infrastructure
investment, usually considered a Democratic Party policy.[238] Trump has supported or leaned toward
varying political positions over time.[239][240] Politico has described his positions as "eclectic,
improvisational and often contradictory",[241] while NBC News counted "141 distinct shifts on 23 major
issues" during his campaign.[242]
Campaign rhetoric
In his campaign, Trump said he disdained political correctness; he also said the media had
intentionally misinterpreted his words, and he made other claims of adverse media bias.[243][244][245] In
part due to his fame, and due to his willingness to say things other candidates would not, and
because a candidate who is gaining ground automatically provides a compelling news story, Trump
received an unprecedented amount of free media coverage during his run for the presidency, which
elevated his standing in the Republican primaries.[246]
Fact-checking organizations have denounced Trump for making a record number of false statements
compared to other candidates.[247][248][249] At least four major publications – Politico, The Washington
Post, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times – have pointed out lies or falsehoods in his
campaign statements, with the Los Angeles Times saying, "Never in modern presidential politics has
a major candidate made false statements as routinely as Trump has."[250] NPR said Trump's
campaign statements were often opaque or suggestive.[251]
Trump adopted his ghostwriter's phrase "truthful hyperbole" to describe his public speaking style.[252]
[253]

Support from the far right

According to Michael Barkun, the Trump campaign was remarkable for bringing fringe ideas, beliefs,
and organizations into the mainstream.[254] During his presidential campaign, Trump was accused of
pandering to white supremacists.[255][256][257] He retweeted open racists,[258][259] and repeatedly refused to
condemn David Duke, the Ku Klux Klan or white supremacists, in an interview on CNN's State of the
Union, saying he would first need to "do research" because he knew nothing about Duke or white
supremacists.[260][261] Duke himself enthusiastically supported Trump throughout the 2016 primary and
election, and has said he and like-minded people voted for Trump because of his promises to "take
our country back".[262][263]
After repeated questioning by reporters, Trump said he disavowed David Duke and the KKK.
[264]
 Trump said on MSNBC's Morning Joe: "I disavowed him. I disavowed the KKK. Do you want me
to do it again for the 12th time? I disavowed him in the past, I disavow him now."[264]
The alt-right movement coalesced around Trump's candidacy,[265] due in part to its opposition to
multiculturalism and immigration.[266][267][268] Members of the alt-right enthusiastically supported Trump's
campaign.[269] In August 2016, he appointed Steve Bannon – the executive chairman of Breitbart
News – as his campaign CEO; Bannon described Breitbart News as "the platform for the alt-right".
[270]
 In an interview days after the election, Trump condemned supporters who celebrated his victory
with Nazi salutes.[271][272]
Financial disclosures
As a presidential candidate, Trump disclosed details of his companies, assets, and revenue sources
to the extent required by the FEC. His 2015 report listed assets above $1.4 billion and outstanding
debts of at least $265 million.[61][273] The 2016 form showed little change.[113]
Trump has not released his tax returns, contrary to the practice of every major candidate since 1976
and his promises in 2014 and 2015 to do so if he ran for office.[274][275] He said his tax returns were
being audited (in actuality, audits do not prevent release of tax returns), and his lawyers had advised
him against releasing them.[276] Trump has told the press his tax rate is none of their business, and
that he tries to pay "as little tax as possible".[277]
In October 2016, portions of Trump's state filings for 1995 were leaked to a reporter from The New
York Times. They show that Trump had declared a loss of $916 million that year, which could have
let him avoid taxes for up to 18 years. During the second presidential debate, Trump acknowledged
using the deduction, but declined to provide details such as the specific years it was applied.[278]
On March 14, 2017, the first two pages of Trump's 2005 federal income tax returns were leaked
to MSNBC. The document states that Trump had a gross adjusted income of $150 million and paid
$38 million in federal taxes. The White House confirmed the authenticity of the documents.[279][280]
In April 2019, the House Ways and Means Committee made a formal request to the Internal
Revenue Service for Trump's personal and business tax returns from 2013 to 2018.[281] Two
deadlines to provide the returns were missed, then Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin in May 2019
ultimately denied the request.[282][283][284] Committee chairman Richard Neal then subpoenaed the
Treasury Department and the IRS for the returns.[285] These subpoenas were also defied in May
2019.[286] A fall 2018 draft IRS legal memo asserted that tax returns must be provided to Congress
upon request, unless a president invokes executive privilege. Congress need not justify the request,
the memo stated, contradicting the administration's justification that a legislative purpose is needed
to produce the tax returns.[287] Mnuchin asserted the memo actually addressed a different matter.[288]

Election to the presidency

Main article: 2016 United States presidential election

2016 electoral vote results

On November 8, 2016, Trump received 306 pledged electoral votes versus 232 for Clinton. The
official counts were 304 and 227 respectively, after defections on both sides.[289] Trump received
nearly 2.9 million fewer popular votes than Clinton, which made him the fifth person to be elected
president while losing the popular vote.[290][e] Clinton was ahead nationwide, with 65,853,514 votes
(48.18%) compared to Trump's 62,984,828 votes (46.09%).[293]
Trump's victory was considered a stunning political upset by most observers, as polls had
consistently shown Hillary Clinton with a nationwide – though diminishing – lead, as well as a
favorable advantage in most of the competitive states. Trump's support had been modestly
underestimated throughout his campaign,[294] and many observers blamed errors in polls, partially
attributed to pollsters overestimating Clinton's support among well-educated and nonwhite voters,
while underestimating Trump's support among white working-class voters.[295] The polls were
relatively accurate,[296] but media outlets and pundits alike showed overconfidence in a Clinton victory
despite a large number of undecided voters and a favorable concentration of Trump's core
constituencies in competitive states.[297]

President Obama and president-elect Trump on November 10, 2016

Trump won 30 states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, which had been considered

a blue wall of Democratic strongholds since the 1990s. Clinton won 20 states and the District of
Columbia. Trump's victory marked the return of a Republican White House combined with control
of both chambers of Congress.[298]
Trump is the wealthiest president in U.S. history, even after adjusting for inflation,[299] and the oldest
person to take office as president.[300] He is also the first president who did not serve in the military or
hold elective or appointed government office prior to being elected.[301][302] Of the 43[f] previous
presidents, 38 had held prior elective office, two had not held elective office but had served in the
Cabinet, and three had never held public office but had been commanding generals.[302]

Protests
Main article: Protests against Donald Trump

Women's March in Washington on January 21, 2017, a day after Trump's inauguration

Some rallies during the primary season were accompanied by protests or violence, both inside and
outside the venues.[304][305][306] Trump's election victory sparked protests across the United States, in
opposition to his policies and his inflammatory statements. Trump initially tweeted that these were
"professional protesters, incited by the media" and "unfair", but later "Love the fact that the small
groups of protesters last night have passion for our great country."[307][308]
In the weeks following Trump's inauguration, massive anti-Trump demonstrations took place, such
as the Women Marches, which gathered 2,600,000 people worldwide,[309] including 500,000 in
Washington alone.[310] Marches against his travel ban began across the country on January 29, 2017,
just nine days after his inauguration.[311]

2020 presidential campaign

Main article: Donald Trump 2020 presidential campaign
Trump signaled his intention to run for a second term by filing with the FEC within a few hours of
assuming the presidency.[312][313] This transformed his 2016 election committee into a 2020 reelection
one.[314] Trump marked the official start of the campaign with a rally in Melbourne, Florida, on
February 18, 2017, less than a month after taking office.[315] By January 2018, Trump's reelection
committee had $22 million in hand,[316] and it had raised a total amount exceeding $67 million by
December 2018.[317] Trump became the Republican nominee on August 24, 2020.[318] Trump's re-
election campaign saw declining poll numbers by mid-2020, reflecting dissatisfaction with his
handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and widespread racial justice protests following the killing of
George Floyd.[319][320]
Starting in spring 2020, Trump began to sow doubts about the election, repeatedly warning that the
election would be "rigged"[321] and claiming without evidence that the expected widespread use of
mail balloting would produce "massive election fraud".[322] When the House of Representatives voted
for a $25 billion grant to the post office, to allow them to handle the expected surge in mail voting,
Trump said he would not agree to the grant because he wanted to prevent any increase in voting by
mail.[323] In what The New York Times called an "extraordinary breach of presidential decorum",
Trump raised the idea on July 30 of delaying the election.[324] He has refused to say whether he will
accept the results of the election if he loses.[325]
Campaign advertisements in July focused on crime, claiming that cities would descend into
lawlessness if Biden won the presidency.[326] Several sources described his campaign message as
shifting to "racist rhetoric" in an attempt to reclaim voters lost from his base.[327][328]

Presidency
Main article: Presidency of Donald Trump
For a chronological guide to this subject, see Timeline of the Donald Trump presidency.

Early actions
See also: Presidential transition of Donald Trump and First 100 days of Donald Trump's presidency

Trump during his inauguration in 2017. From left, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer.

Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States on January 20, 2017. During his
first week in office, he signed six executive orders: interim procedures in anticipation of repealing
the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific
Partnership negotiations, reinstatement of the Mexico City Policy, unlocking the Keystone
XL and Dakota Access Pipeline construction projects, reinforcing border security, and beginning the
planning and design process to construct a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.[329]
Upon inauguration, Trump delegated the management of his real estate business to his sons Eric
and Don Jr.[330] His daughter Ivanka resigned from the Trump Organization and moved to
Washington, D.C., with her husband Jared Kushner. She serves as an assistant to the President,
[331]
 and he is a Senior Advisor in the White House.[332]
On January 31, Trump nominated U.S. Appeals Court judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the Supreme
Court seat held by Justice Antonin Scalia until his death on February 13, 2016.[333]

Domestic policy
Economy and trade
Main article: Economic policy of Donald Trump
See also: Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and Trump tariffs
The economic expansion that began in June 2009 continued through Trump's first three years in
office.[334][335] This ended in February 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic sparked a recession.
[335]
 Throughout his presidency, Trump has repeatedly and falsely characterized the economy as the
best in American history (at least four U.S. presidents have presided over better economies).[334]
In December 2017, Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which permanently cut the
corporate tax rate to 21 percent, temporarily lowered personal tax brackets until 2025, increased
child tax credit, doubled the estate tax exemption to $11.2 million, and limited the state and local tax
deduction to $10,000.[336]

Trump speaks to automobile workers in Michigan, March 2017.

Trump is a skeptic of multilateral trade deals, as he believes they indirectly incentivize unfair trade
practices that then tend to go unpoliced. He favors bilateral trade deals, as they allow one party to
pull out if the other party is believed to be behaving unfairly. Trump favors neutral or positive
balances of trade over negative balances of trade, also known as a "trade deficit". Trump adopted
his current skeptical views toward trade liberalization in the 1980s, and he sharply
criticized NAFTA during the Republican primary campaign in 2015.[337][338][339] He withdrew the U.S.
from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations,[340] imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum
imports,[341] and launched a trade war with China by sharply increasing tariffs on 818 categories
(worth $50 billion) of Chinese goods imported into the U.S.[342][343] On several occasions, Trump has
said incorrectly that these import tariffs are paid by China into the U.S. Treasury.[344]
Despite a campaign promise to eliminate the national debt in eight years, Trump as president has
approved large increases in government spending, as well as the 2017 tax cut. As a result, the
American government's budget deficit has increased by almost 50%, to nearly $1 trillion in 2019.
[345]
 In 2016, the year before Trump took office, the U.S. national debt was around $19 trillion; by mid-
2020, it had increased to $26 trillion under the Trump administration.[346]
In April 2020, the official unemployment rate shot up to 14.7% due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This
was an underestimation of the actual unemployment rate, but still was the highest level of
unemployment since 1939.[347]
Energy and climate
Main article: Environmental policy of the Donald Trump administration
Trump rejects the scientific consensus on climate change.[348][349] Since his election Trump has made
large budget cuts to programs that research renewable energy and has rolled back Obama-era
policies directed at curbing climate change.[350] In June 2017, Trump announced the withdrawal of the
United States from the Paris Agreement, making the U.S. the only nation in the world to not ratify the
agreement.[351] At the 2019 G7 summit, Trump skipped the sessions on climate change but said
afterward during a press conference that he is an environmentalist.[352]
Trump has rolled back federal regulations aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution,
water pollution, and the usage of toxic substances. One example is the Clean Power Plan. He
relaxed environmental standards for federal infrastructure projects, while expanding permitted areas
for drilling and resource extraction, such as allowing drilling in the Arctic Refuge. Trump also
weakened protections for animals.[353] Trump's energy policies aimed to boost the production and
exports of coal, oil, and natural gas.[354]
Government size and deregulation
Trump's early policies have favored rollback and dismantling of government regulations. He has
signed 15 Congressional Review Act disapproval resolutions to allow Congress to repeal executive
regulations, the second President to sign any such resolutions after the first CRA resolution was
passed in 2001, and the first President to sign more than one such resolution.[355] During his first six
weeks in office, he delayed, suspended or reversed ninety federal regulations.[356][357]
On January 30, 2017, Trump signed Executive Order 13771, which directed that for every new
regulation administrative agencies issue "at least two prior regulations be identified for elimination".
[358][359]
 Agency defenders expressed opposition to Trump's criticisms, saying the bureaucracy exists to
protect people against well-organized, well-funded interest groups.[360]
Health care
During his campaign, Trump repeatedly vowed to repeal and replace Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act (ACA or "Obamacare").[361] Shortly after taking office, he urged Congress to
repeal and replace it. In May of that year, the House voted to repeal it.[362] His first action as president
was Executive Order 13765, which increased flexibility "to the maximum extent permitted by law" for
the Cabinet to issue waivers, deferrals, and exemptions for the law while attempting to give states
more flexibility.[363] Executive Order 13813 was subsequently issued, designed to reduce regulations
imposed under Obamacare by increasing competition.[364] Trump has expressed a desire to "let
Obamacare fail", and the Trump administration has cut the ACA enrollment period in half and
drastically reduced funding for advertising and other ways to encourage enrollment.[365][366][367] The 2017
tax bill effectively repealed the ACA's individual health insurance mandate in 2019,[368][369][370] and a
budget bill Trump signed in 2019 repealed the Cadillac plan tax, medical device tax, and tanning tax.
[371][372]
 As president, Trump has falsely claimed he saved the coverage of pre-existing conditions
provided by ACA, while his administration declined to challenge a lawsuit that would eliminate it.
[373]
 As a 2016 candidate, Trump promised to protect funding for Medicare and other social safety-net
programs, but in January 2020 he suggested he was willing to consider cuts to such programs.[374]
Social issues
Main article: Social policy of Donald Trump
Trump favored modifying the 2016 Republican platform opposing abortion, to allow for exceptions in
cases of rape, incest, and circumstances endangering the health of the mother.[375] He has said he is
committed to appointing "pro-life" justices.[376] He says he personally supports "traditional
marriage"[377] but considers the nationwide legality of same-sex marriage a "settled" issue.[376] Despite
the statement by Trump and the White House saying they would keep in place a 2014 executive
order from the Obama administration which created federal workplace protections for LGBT people,
[378]
 in March 2017, the Trump administration rolled back key components of the Obama
administration's workplace protections for LGBT people.[379]
Trump supports a broad interpretation of the Second Amendment and says he is opposed to gun
control in general,[380][381] although his views have shifted over time.[382] Trump opposes legalizing
recreational marijuana but supports legalizing medical marijuana.[383] He favors capital punishment,[384]
[385]
 as well as the use of waterboarding and "a hell of a lot worse" methods.[386][387]
Pardons and commutations
Main article: List of people granted executive clemency by Donald Trump
In August 2017, Trump pardoned former sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was awaiting sentencing
for contempt of court in a class action that alleged racial profiling.[388][389] In March 2018, he pardoned
former Navy sailor Kristian Saucier, who had been found guilty of taking classified photographs of a
submarine.[390] In April 2018 he pardoned Scooter Libby, a political aide to former Vice President Dick
Cheney. Libby had been convicted of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements to
the FBI.[391] In May 2018 he granted a posthumous pardon to Jack Johnson, a black boxer who had
been convicted in 1913 for traveling across state lines with his white girlfriend.[392][393] In June 2018 he
pardoned conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza, who had made illegal political campaign
contributions.[394] That month he also commuted the life sentence of Alice Marie Johnson, a non-
violent drug trafficking offender, following a request by celebrity Kim Kardashian.[395] In February
2020, Trump pardoned white-collar criminals Michael Milken, Bernard Kerik, and Edward J.
DeBartolo Jr., and commuted former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich's 14-year corruption
sentence.[396][397]
In July 2020, Trump commuted the 40-month prison sentence for his friend and adviser Roger
Stone, who had been soon due to report to jail for his actions during the investigation into Russian
interference in the 2016 presidential elections. The sentencing judge had previously described that
Stone was "prosecuted for covering up for the president" – Trump himself. A month before the
commutation, Trump had declared that Stone "can sleep well at night!"[398]

Immigration
Main article: Immigration policy of Donald Trump
Trump's proposed immigration policies were a topic of bitter and contentious debate during the
campaign. He promised to build a more substantial wall on the Mexico–United States border to keep
out illegal immigrants and vowed Mexico would pay for it.[399] He pledged to massively deport illegal
immigrants residing in the United States,[400] and criticized birthright citizenship for creating "anchor
babies".[401] He said deportation would focus on criminals, visa overstays, and security threats.[402] As
president, he frequently described illegal immigration as an "invasion" and conflated immigrants with
the gang MS-13, though research shows undocumented immigrants have a lower crime rate than
native-born Americans.[403]
Trump has attempted to drastically escalate immigration enforcement.[404] Some of the results are
harsher immigration enforcement policies against asylum seekers from Central America than any
modern U.S. president before him, and a significantly increased usage of migrant detentions and
deportations.[405][406] This was accompanied by the Trump administration's mandating in 2018 that
immigration judges must complete 700 cases a year to be evaluated as performing satisfactorily.[407]
In other immigration policies, Trump has from 2018 onwards deployed nearly 6,000 troops to the
U.S. Mexico border,[408] in 2019 was allowed by the Supreme Court to stop most Central American
migrants from seeking U.S. asylum,[409] and from 2020 used the public charge rule to restrict
immigrants using government benefits from getting permanent residency via green cards.[410]
[411]
 Trump has continually reduced the number of allowed refugees into the country; when Trump
took office the annual limit was 110,000, in 2019 Trump set a limit of 18,000, a record low for the
U.S. refugee program.[412] Additional restrictions implemented by the Trump administration caused
(potentially long-lasting) bottlenecks in processing refugee applications, resulting in fewer refugees
accepted compared to the allowed limits.[413]
Travel ban
Main articles: Executive Order 13769 and Executive Order 13780
Following the November 2015 Paris attacks, Trump made a controversial proposal to ban Muslim
foreigners from entering the United States until stronger vetting systems could be implemented.[414][415]
[416]
 He later reframed the proposed ban to apply to countries with a "proven history of terrorism".[417][418]
[419]

On January 27, 2017, Trump signed Executive Order 13769, which suspended admission of
refugees for 120 days and denied entry to citizens of Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and
Yemen for 90 days, citing security concerns. The order took effect immediately and without warning.
[420]
 Confusion and protests caused chaos at airports.[421][422] Sally Yates, the acting Attorney General,
directed Justice Department lawyers not to defend the executive order, which she deemed
unenforceable and unconstitutional;[423] Trump immediately dismissed her.[424] Multiple legal
challenges were filed against the order, and on February 5 a federal judge in Seattle blocked its
implementation nationwide.[425][426] On March 6, Trump issued a revised order, which excluded Iraq,
gave specific exemptions for permanent residents, and removed priorities for Christian minorities.[427]
[420]
 Again federal judges in three states blocked its implementation.[428] On June 26, 2017,
the Supreme Court ruled that the ban could be enforced on visitors who lack a "credible claim of
a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States".[429]
The temporary order was replaced by Presidential Proclamation 9645 on September 24, 2017,
which permanently restricts travel from the originally targeted countries except Iraq and Sudan, and
further bans travelers from North Korea and Chad, along with certain Venezuelan officials.[430] After
lower courts partially blocked the new restrictions, the Supreme Court allowed the September
version to go into full effect on December 4, 2017,[431] and ultimately upheld the travel ban in a June
2019 ruling.[432]
Family separation at border
Main article: Trump administration family separation policy

Children sitting within a wire mesh compartment in the Ursula detention facility in McAllen, Texas, June 2018

The Trump administration has separated more than 5,400 migrant children from their parents at the
U.S.–Mexico border while the families attempted to enter the U.S.[433] The Trump administration
sharply increased the number of family separations at the border starting from the summer of 2017,
before an official policy was announced in 2018; this was not reported publicly until January 2019.[434]
[435]

In April 2018, the Trump administration announced and enacted a "zero tolerance" immigration
policy, whereby every adult illegally crossing the border would be criminally prosecuted.[436] This
resulted in family separations, as the migrant adults were put in criminal detention for prosecution,
while the migrant children were taken away as unaccompanied alien minors.[437] The children would
be brought to immigration detention, immigrant shelters, tent camps, or metal cages, with the stated
aim of releasing them to relatives or sponsors.[438] Administration officials described the policy as a
deterrent against illegal immigration.[438] Previous administrations had no such policy of generally
separating migrant families with children.[438]
The policy of family separations sparked public outrage,[439] and resulted in demands from
Democrats, Republicans, Trump allies, and religious groups that the policy be rescinded.[440] Trump
reacted by falsely asserting that his administration was merely following the law, blaming Democrats,
when in fact this was his administration's policy.[441][442][443] More than 2,300 children were separated as
a result of the "zero tolerance policy", the Trump administration revealed in June 2018.[438]
Although Trump originally argued that the issue could not be solved via executive order, he
proceeded to sign an executive order on June 20, 2018, mandating that migrant families be detained
together, unless the administration judged that doing so would harm the child.[444][445] On June 26,
2018, a federal judge concluded that the Trump administration had "no system in place to keep track
of" the separated children, nor any effective measures for family communication and reunification;
[446]
 the judge ordered for the families to be reunited, and family separations stopped, except in the
cases where the parent(s) are judged unfit to take care of the child, or if there is parental approval.[447]
4,370 children were separated from July 2017 to June 2018, reported the Trump administration in
October 2019.[433] Even after the June 2018 federal judge order, the Trump administration continued
to practice family separations, with more than a thousand migrant children separated.[433]
Migrant detentions
Main article: Trump administration migrant detentions

Overcrowded conditions for migrant families detained in Weslaco, Texas were reported by inspectors from the
federal government in June 2019.[448]

The Trump administration has taken a harsher approach than previous administrations regarding
migrant detentions, by allowing no exemptions for detention unlike the George W. Bush and Obama
administrations.[449] While the Obama administration already employed a high level of detentions and
deportations for migrants, the Trump administration took it to a significantly higher level.[406] In April
2018, Trump ordered an end to the "catch and release" policy which released illegal immigrants from
detention pending a court hearing.[436]
Government inspectors from the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector
General conducted spot-checks of migrant detention centers in June 2018, finding that U.S.
Customs and Border Protection "in many instances" violated federal guidelines for detaining migrant
children for too long before passing them to the Office of Refugee Resettlement.[450] Meanwhile,
Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Kevin McAleenan said in March 2019 there
was a "border security and a humanitarian crisis", with the system for handling migrants already at a
"breaking point" due to an increase in migrants.[451] The government inspectors released further
reports in May 2019 and July 2019 of migrants being detained under conditions failing federal
standards. They reported migrants enduring prolonged detention, "dangerous overcrowding", poor
hygiene and food standards.[452][453] In June 2019 and July 2019, lawyers, a certified doctor, and
lawmakers visited the migrant detention facilities, reporting a lack of supervision, traumatized
children, and many sick migrants respectively.[454][455][456]
The treatment of the detained migrants resulted in public indignation by July 2019.[457] Also that
month, Trump reacted to criticism of the migrant detentions by declaring that U.S. Border Patrol was
doing a "great job", and if the migrants were unhappy about the conditions of the detention facilities,
"just tell them not to come."[458] Meanwhile, Vice President Pence visited an overcrowded facility,
where he reacted by saying "this is tough stuff" and the system is "overwhelmed".[459]
In August 2019, the administration attempted to change the 1997 Flores Agreement that limits
detention of migrant families to 20 days; the new policy allowing indefinite detention was blocked
before it would go into effect.[460]
2018–2019 federal government shutdown
Main article: 2018–19 United States federal government shutdown

Trump examines border wall prototypes in Otay Mesa, California.

On December 22, 2018, the federal government was partially shut down after Trump declared that
any funding extension must include $5.6 billion in federal funds for a U.S.–Mexico border wall to
partly fulfill his campaign promise.[461] The shutdown was caused by a lapse in funding for nine federal
departments, affecting about one-fourth of federal government activities.[462] Trump said he would not
accept any bill that did not include funding for the wall, and Democrats, who control the House, said
they would not support any bill that does. Senate Republicans have said they will not advance any
legislation Trump would not sign.[463] In earlier negotiations with Democratic leaders, Trump
commented that he would be "proud to shut down the government for border security".[464]
The shutdown caused an estimated 380,000 government employees to be furloughed, while an
estimated 420,000 government employees worked without getting paid; most of the affected workers
missed two paychecks.[465] The shutdown resulted in a permanent loss of $3 billion to the U.S.
economy, estimated the Congressional Budget Office.[466] A plurality of Americans blamed Trump for
the shutdown, polls showed; the percentage increased as the shutdown continued, to around 50%.
Trump's approval ratings also dropped.[467]
On January 25, 2019, the Senate and the House unanimously approved a temporary funding bill that
provided no funds for the wall but would provide delayed paychecks to government workers. Trump
signed the bill that day, ending the shutdown at 35 days. It was the longest U.S. government
shutdown in history.[468][469]
Since the government funding was temporary, another shutdown loomed. On February 14, 2019, the
Senate and the House approved a funding bill that included $1.375 billion for 55 miles of border
fences, in lieu of Trump's intended wall.[470] Trump signed the bill on February 15, 2019, just hours
before another shutdown would begin.[471]
National emergency regarding the southern border
On February 15, 2019, after Trump received from Congress only $1.375 billion for border fencing
after demanding $5.7 billion for the Trump wall, he declared a National Emergency Concerning the
Southern Border of the United States, in hopes of getting another $6.7 billion without congressional
approval, using funds for military construction, drug interdiction, and money from the Treasury.[471] In
doing so, Trump acknowledged that he "didn't need to" declare a national emergency, but he "would
rather do it much faster".[471]
Congress twice passed resolutions to block Trump's national emergency declarations, but Trump
twice vetoed them, and Congress did not have enough votes override Trump's veto.[472][473][474] Trump's
decision to divert other government funding to fund the wall resulted in legal challenges. In July
2019, the Supreme Court allowed Trump to use $2.5 billion (originally meant for anti-drug programs)
from the Department of Defense to build the Trump wall.[475][476] In December 2019, a federal judge
stopped the Trump administration from using $3.6 billion of military construction funds for the Trump
wall.[476]
Trump wall
Main article: Trump wall
As a presidential candidate, Trump insisted that along the southern border he would build a wall –
not a fence – saying there is a "big difference"[477] and mentioning "concrete going very high". In
January 2018 he again floated the idea of solid concrete.[478]
In 2017, the Mexico-U.S. border had 654 miles of primary fencing, 37 miles of secondary fencing
and 14 miles of tertiary fencing.[479] Trump's target, from 2015 to 2017, was 1,000 miles of wall.[480] The
Trump administration set a target of 450 miles of new or renovated barriers by December 2020, with
an ultimate goal of 509 miles of new or renovated barriers by August 2021.[481] Even into 2020, Trump
has repeatedly provided false assertions that Mexico is paying for the Trump wall, although
American taxpayers are footing the bill from funds being diverted from the U.S. Department of
Defense.[482]
In October 2018, the administration revealed two miles of replacement fences made of steel posts,
which it called the first section of Trump's 'wall', although earlier that year Border Patrol had said the
project was unrelated to the Trump wall and had been long planned (dating to 2009).[483][484] In
December 2018 and January 2019, Trump tweeted out a design of a steel fence, and a picture of a
fence, while declaring "the wall is coming."[480] In February 2019, Trump said his administration had
been "restricted to renovating" existing barriers, "and we need new wall."[485]
By November 2019, the Trump administration had replaced around 78 miles of the Mexico–United
States barrier along the border; these replacement barriers were not walls, but fences made
of bollards.[486][487] The administration in November 2019 said it had "just started breaking ground" to
build new barriers in areas where no structure existed.[486] By May 2020, the Trump administration
had replaced 172 miles of dilapidated or outdated design barriers, and constructed 15 miles of new
border barriers.[488]

Foreign policy
Main article: Foreign policy of the Donald Trump administration

Trump with Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel, Justin Trudeau and other leaders at the 45th G7 summit in

France, 2019
Trump, King Salman of Saudi Arabia, and Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi at the 2017 Riyadh summit in
Saudi Arabia

Trump has been described as a non-interventionist[489][490] and an American nationalist.[491] He has

repeatedly said he supports an "America First" foreign policy.[492] He supports increasing United
States military defense spending,[491] but favors decreasing United States spending on NATO and in
the Pacific region.[493] He says America should look inward, stop "nation building", and re-orient its
resources toward domestic needs.[490]
His foreign policy has been marked by repeated praise and support of neo-
nationalist and authoritarian strongmen and criticism of democratically-led governments.[494] Trump
has cited China's president Xi Jinping,[495] Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte,[496] Egyptian
president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi,[497] Turkey's president Tayyip Erdoğan,[498] King Salman of Saudi
Arabia,[499] Italy's prime minister Giuseppe Conte,[500] Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro,[501] Indian prime
minister Narendra Modi,[502] and Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán as examples of good leaders.
[503]

ISIS, Syria, and Afghanistan

In April 2017, Trump ordered a missile strike against a Syrian airfield in retaliation for the Khan
Shaykhun chemical attack.[504] According to investigative journalist Bob Woodward, Trump had
ordered his defense secretary James Mattis to assassinate Syrian president Bashar al-Assad after
the chemical attack, but Mattis declined; Trump denied doing so.[505] In April 2018, he
announced missile strikes against Assad's regime, following a suspected chemical attack
near Damascus.[506]
In December 2018, Trump declared "we have won against ISIS," and ordered the withdrawal of all
troops from Syria, contradicting Department of Defense assessments.[507][508][509] Mattis resigned the
next day over disagreements in foreign policy, calling this decision an abandonment of Kurd
allies who had played a key role in fighting ISIS.[510] One week after his announcement, Trump said
he would not approve any extension of the American deployment in Syria.[511] On January 6, 2019,
national security advisor John Bolton announced America would remain in Syria until ISIS is
eradicated and Turkey guarantees it will not strike America's Kurdish allies.[512]
Trump actively supported the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen against the Houthis and
signed a $110 billion agreement to sell arms to Saudi Arabia.[513][514][515] Trump also praised his
relationship with Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.[513]
U.S. troop numbers in Afghanistan increased from 8,500 to 14,000, as of January 2017,[516] reversing
his pre-election position critical of further involvement in Afghanistan.[517] U.S. officials said then that
they aimed to "force the Taliban to negotiate a political settlement"; in January 2018, however,
Trump spoke against talks with the Taliban.[518] On February 29, 2020, the Trump administration
signed a conditional peace agreement with the Taliban,[519] which calls for the withdrawal of foreign
troops in 14 months if the Taliban uphold the terms of the agreement.[520] Trump said "it is time" to
bring U.S. soldiers home from Afghanistan.[521]

Trump with Turkish president Erdoğan in November 2019

In October 2019, after Trump spoke to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the White House
acknowledged Turkey would be carrying out a planned military offensive into northern Syria; as
such, U.S. troops in northern Syria were withdrawn from the area to avoid interference with that
operation. The statement also passed responsibility for the area's captured ISIS fighters to Turkey.
[522]
 In the following days, Trump suggested the Kurds intentionally released ISIS prisoners in order to
gain sympathy, suggested they were fighting only for their own financial interests, suggested some
of them were worse than ISIS, and termed them "no angels".[523]
Congress members of both parties denounced the move, including Republican allies of Trump such
as Senator Lindsey Graham. They argued that the move betrayed the American-allied Kurds, and
would benefit ISIS, Turkey, Russia, Iran, and Bashar al-Assad's Syrian regime.[524] Trump defended
the move, citing the high cost of supporting the Kurds, and the lack of support from the Kurds in past
U.S. wars.[525][526] After the U.S. pullout, Turkey proceeded to attack Kurdish-controlled areas in
northeastern Syria.[527] On October 16, the United States House of Representatives, in a rare
bipartisan vote of 354 to 60, "condemned" Trump's withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria for
"abandoning U.S. allies, undermining the struggle against ISIS, and spurring a humanitarian
catastrophe".[528][529]
In November 2019, Trump ordered U.S. troops to secure the oil fields in eastern Syria, then said any
remaining U.S. troops in Syria were there "only for the oil", and that the U.S. was "keeping the oil".
Seizing oil without local government permission would be a war crime of pillage.[530][531]
Iran
See also: Iran–United States relations §  2017–present: Trump administration, United States
withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and 2019–20 Persian Gulf crisis

Demonstrations in Iran over the death of Qasem Soleimani during the U.S attack on the Baghdad airport in Iraq
on January 3, 2020

Trump has described the regime in Iran as "the rogue regime", although he has also asserted he
does not seek regime change.[532][533] He has repeatedly criticized the Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action (JCPOA or "Iran nuclear deal") that was negotiated with the United States, Iran, and five other
world powers in 2015, calling it "terrible" and saying the Obama administration had negotiated the
agreement "from desperation".[534][535][536]
Following Iran's missile tests on January 29, 2017, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on
25 Iranian individuals and entities in February 2017.[537][538][539] Trump reportedly lobbied "dozens" of
European officials against doing business with Iran during the May 2017 Brussels summit; this likely
violated the terms of the JCPOA, under which the U.S. may not pursue "any policy specifically
intended to directly and adversely affect the normalization of trade and economic relations with Iran".
The Trump administration certified in July 2017 that Iran had upheld its end of the agreement.[540] On
August 2, 2017, Trump signed into law the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions
Act (CAATSA) that grouped together sanctions against Iran, Russia, and North Korea.[541] On May 18,
2018, Trump announced the United States' unilateral departure from the JCPOA.[535]
In May 2017, strained relations between the U.S. and Iran escalated when Trump deployed military
bombers and a carrier group to the Persian Gulf. Trump hinted at war on social media, provoking a
response from Iran for what Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif called "genocidal taunts".[542][543]
[544]
 Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman are allies in the conflict with Iran.
[545]
 Trump approved the deployment of additional U.S. troops to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates following the attack on Saudi oil facilities which the United States has blamed on Iran.[546]
On January 2, 2020, Trump ordered a targeted U.S. airstrike, which killed Iranian Major
General and IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi Popular Mobilization
Forces commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, as well as eight other people.[547] Trump publicly
threatened to attack Iranian cultural sites, or react "in a disproportionate manner" if Iran retaliated;
though such attacks by the U.S. would violate international law as war crimes.[548] On January 8, Iran
retaliated by launching airstrikes on Al Asad Air Base in Iraq; initially the Trump administration
claimed no Americans suffered injuries, then Trump said injuries were not "very serious", but by
February 2020, more than a hundred traumatic brain injuries were diagnosed in U.S. troops.[549] Iran
issues an arrest warrant for 36 U.S. political and military officials, including Trump, for their role in
the assassination of Qasem Soleimani.[550]
Israel
See also: Israel–United States relations §  Trump administration (2017–present)

Trump and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Yad Vashem, May 2017

Trump has supported the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.[551] He

officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on December 6, 2017, despite criticism and
warnings from world leaders. He subsequently opened a new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem in May
2018.[552][553] The United Nations General Assembly condemned the move, adopting a resolution that
"calls upon all States to refrain from the establishment of diplomatic missions in the Holy City of
Jerusalem".[554][555] In March 2019, Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy by recognizing Israel's
annexation of the Golan Heights,[556] a move condemned by the European Union and the Arab
League.[557]
China
See also: China–United States relations §  Trump's presidency (2017–), and China–United States
trade war
Before and during his presidency, Trump has repeatedly accused China of taking unfair advantage
of the U.S.[558] During his presidency, Trump has launched a trade war against China,
sanctioned Huawei for its alleged ties to Iran,[559] significantly increased visa restrictions on Chinese
nationality students and scholars[560][561] and classified China as a "currency manipulator".[562] In the
wake of the significant deterioration of relations, many political observers have warned against
a new cold war between China and the U.S.[563][564][565]
Trump said he resisted punishing China for its human rights abuses against ethnic minorities in the
northwestern Xinjiang region for fear of jeopardizing U.S.-China trade negotiations.[566] On July 9,
2020, Trump imposed sanctions and visa restrictions against senior Chinese officials,
including Chen Quanguo,[567] a member of China's powerful Politburo of the Communist Party, who
expanded mass detention camps holding more than a million members of the
country's Uyghur Muslim minority.[568]
North Korea
See also: North Korea–United States relations

Trump meets Kim Jong-un at the Singapore summit, June 2018.

In 2017, North Korea's nuclear weapons were increasingly seen as a serious threat to the United
States.[569] In August 2017, Trump escalated his rhetoric, warning that North Korean threats would be
met with "fire and fury like the world has never seen".[570] North Korea responded by releasing plans
for missile tests that would land near Guam.[571] In September 2017, Trump addressed the United
Nations General Assembly, saying the U.S. would "totally destroy North Korea" if "forced" to defend
itself or its allies.[572] Also in September 2017, Trump increased sanctions on North Korea, declared
that he wanted North Korea's "complete denuclearization", and engaged in name-calling with
leader Kim Jong-un.[570][573]
In March 2018, Trump immediately agreed to Kim's proposal for a meeting.[574] On June 12,
2018, Trump and Kim met in Singapore, with Kim affirming his intention "to work toward complete
denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula".[575]
A second Trump–Kim summit in Hanoi in February 2019, was terminated abruptly without an
agreement; both countries blamed each other and offered differing accounts of the negotiations.
[576]
 On June 30, 2019, Trump, Kim, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in held brief talks in
the Korean Demilitarized Zone, marking the first time a sitting U.S. president had set foot on North
Korean soil. Trump and Kim agreed to resume negotiations.[577] Bilateral talks began in Stockholm in
October 2019, but broke down after one day.[578] North Korea has shown no indication that it is willing
to unilaterally denuclearize.[579]
Russia
See also: Russia–United States relations

Putin and Trump at the G20 Osaka summit, June 2019

During his campaign and as president, Trump has repeatedly asserted that he desires better
relations with Russia.[580][581] He also said Russia could help the U.S. in its fight against ISIS.
[582]
 According to Putin and some political experts and diplomats, the U.S.–Russian relations, which
were already at the lowest level since the end of the Cold War, have further deteriorated since
Trump took office in January 2017.[583][584][585]
As president, Trump has criticized Russia about Syria,[586] Ukraine,[587] North Korea,[588] Venezuela,
[589]
 and the Skripal poisoning,[590] but has sent mixed messages regarding Crimea.[591][592][593] He forbade
U.S. oil companies from drilling in Russia.[594] Businesses involved in the Nord Stream 2 gas
pipeline from Russia to Germany have been sanctioned by the Trump administration with the
passing of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 on December 20, 2019.
[595]
 Trump said the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, owned by Russia's Gazprom, could turn Germany into a
"hostage of Russia".[596]
Amidst continuing growth of China's missile forces, Trump announced in October 2018 that he was
withdrawing the U.S. from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty due to supposed Russian
non-compliance,[597] a move criticized by the former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who signed
the treaty in 1987 with U.S. President Ronald Reagan.[598]
Trump has repeatedly praised Russian president Vladimir Putin; criticism of Putin by Trump was
uncommon.[599][586] As a presidential candidate, Trump continually described Putin as a strong leader.
[600]
 When Putin in August 2017 expelled over half of the staff of the American embassy in Russia in
retaliation for Sanctions Act (CAATSA),[601] which imposed new sanctions on Russia, Trump
responded by thanking Putin, saying "We'll save a lot of money," instead of criticizing him.[599] After
Trump met Putin at the Helsinki Summit on July 16, 2018, Trump drew bipartisan criticism for siding
with Putin's denial of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, rather than accepting the
findings of the United States intelligence community.[602][603][604]
Serbia-Kosovo

Vučić, Hoti and Trump at the 2020 Kosovo–Serbia agreement, September 2020

On October 4, 2019, Donald Trump appointed Richard Grenell as Special Presidential Envoy for
Serbia and Kosovo Peace Negotiations.[605] After months of diplomatic talks, on January 20, 2020,
Grenell facilitated negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo[g] where the two sides agreed to restore
flights between their capitals for the first time in more than two decades.[606][607]
A new summit, located at the White House, was organized by Grenell and scheduled for September
3 and 4, 2020.[608] Grenell, along with Robert C. O'Brien, cohosted the talks.[608] On September 4, an
agreement was signed by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah
Hoti.[608][609] The signing ceremony took place in the Oval Office at the White House in the presence of
US President Donald Trump on September 4, 2020.[609]
Venezuela
See also: United States–Venezuela relations

Trump with Venezuela's opposition leader and interim president, Juan Guaidó, at the White House, February
2020

On August 11, 2017, Trump said he is "not going to rule out a military option" to confront the
government of Nicolás Maduro.[610] In September 2018, Trump called for "the restoration of
democracy in Venezuela" and said that "socialism has bankrupted the oil-rich nation and driven its
people into abject poverty."[611] On January 23, 2019, Maduro announced that Venezuela
was breaking ties with the United States following Trump's announcement of recognizing Juan
Guaidó, the Venezuelan opposition leader, as the interim president of Venezuela.[612]
NATO
Trump and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, April 2017

As a candidate, Trump questioned whether he, as president, would automatically extend security

guarantees to NATO members,[613] and suggested he might leave NATO unless changes are made to
the alliance.[614] As president, he reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to NATO in March 2017;
[615]
 however, he has repeatedly accused fellow NATO members of paying less than their fair share of
the expenses of the alliance.[616]
In January 2019, The New York Times quoted senior administration officials as saying Trump has
privately suggested on multiple occasions that the United States should withdraw from NATO.[617] The
next day Trump said the United States is going to "be with NATO one hundred percent" but repeated
that the other countries have to "step up" and pay more.[618]

Personnel
Main articles: Political appointments by Donald Trump and Cabinet of Donald Trump
See also: Formation of Donald Trump's Cabinet

Cabinet meeting, March 2017

The Trump administration has been characterized by high turnover, particularly among White House
staff. By the end of Trump's first year in office, 34 percent of his original staff had resigned, been
fired, or been reassigned.[619] As of early July 2018, 61 percent of Trump's senior aides had left[620] and
141 staffers had left in the past year.[621] Both figures set a record for recent presidents – more
change in the first 13 months than his four immediate predecessors saw in their first two years.
[622]
 Notable early departures included National Security Advisor Michael Flynn (after just 25 days in
office), Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, replaced by retired Marine general John F. Kelly on July 28,
2017,[623] and Press Secretary Sean Spicer.[622] Close personal aides to Trump such as Steve
Bannon, Hope Hicks, John McEntee and Keith Schiller, have quit or been forced out.[624] Some, like
Hicks and McEntee, later returned to the White House in different posts.[625] Trump has disparaged
several of his former top officials as incompetent, stupid, or crazy.[626]
Trump's cabinet nominations included U.S. senator from Alabama Jeff Sessions as Attorney
General,[627] financier Steve Mnuchin as Secretary of the Treasury,[628] retired Marine Corps
general James Mattis as Secretary of Defense,[629] and ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson as Secretary
of State.[630] Trump also brought on board politicians who had opposed him during the presidential
campaign, such as neurosurgeon Ben Carson as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development,
[631]
 and South Carolina governor Nikki Haley as Ambassador to the United Nations.[632]
Two of Trump's 15 original cabinet members were gone within 15 months: Health and Human
Services Secretary Tom Price was forced to resign in September 2017 due to excessive use of
private charter jets and military aircraft, and Trump replaced Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson with Mike Pompeo in March 2018 over disagreements on foreign policy.[633][624] EPA
Administrator Scott Pruitt resigned in July 2018 amidst multiple investigations into his conduct,
[634]
 while Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke resigned five months later as he also faced multiple
investigations.[635]
Trump has been slow to appoint second-tier officials in the executive branch, saying many of the
positions are unnecessary. In October 2017, there were still hundreds of sub-cabinet positions
without a nominee.[636] By January 8, 2019, of 706 key positions, 433 had been filled (61%) and
Trump had no nominee for 264 (37%).[637]
Dismissal of James Comey
Main article: Dismissal of James Comey
On May 9, 2017, Trump dismissed FBI director James Comey. He first attributed this action to
recommendations from Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein,[638] which
criticized Comey's conduct in the investigation about Hillary Clinton's emails.[639] On May 11, Trump
said he was concerned with the ongoing "Russia thing"[640] and that he had intended to fire Comey
earlier, regardless of DOJ advice.[641]
According to a Comey memo of a private conversation on February 14, 2017, Trump said he
"hoped" Comey would drop the investigation into National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.[642] In
March and April, Trump had told Comey the ongoing suspicions formed a "cloud" impairing his
presidency,[643] and asked him to publicly state that he was not personally under investigation.[644] He
also asked intelligence chiefs Dan Coats and Michael Rogers to issue statements saying there was
no evidence that his campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election.[645] Both refused,
considering this an inappropriate request, although not illegal.[646] Comey eventually testified on
June 8 that, while he was director, the FBI investigations had not targeted Trump himself.[643][647]

COVID-19 pandemic
Main articles: COVID-19 pandemic, COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, U.S. federal
government response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Trump administration communication during
the COVID-19 pandemic

Trump signs the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act into law on
March 6, 2020.

In December 2019, an outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first identified

in Wuhan, Hubei, China, spreading worldwide within weeks.[648][649] The first confirmed case in the
United States was reported on January 20, 2020.[650]
Trump was slow to address the spread of the disease, initially dismissing the imminent threat and
ignoring calls for action from government health experts and Secretary Azar.[651][652] Throughout
January and February, he rejected persistent public health warnings from officials within his
administration, focusing instead on economic and political considerations of the outbreak.[653][652] By
mid-March, most global financial markets had severely contracted in response to the emerging
pandemic.[654][655] Trump continued to claim that a vaccine was months away, although HHS and CDC
officials had repeatedly told him it would take 12–18 months to develop a vaccine.[656][657] Trump also
falsely claimed that "anybody that wants a test can get a test," despite the availability of tests being
severely limited.[658][659]
On March 6, Trump signed the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental
Appropriations Act into law, which provided $8.3 billion in emergency funding for federal agencies.
[660]
 On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized the spread of COVID-19 as
a pandemic,[648] and Trump announced partial travel restrictions for most of Europe, effective March
13.[661] That same day, he gave his first serious assessment of the virus ("horrible") in a nationwide
Oval Office address; he also said the outbreak was "a temporary moment" and that there was no
financial crisis.[662] On March 13, he declared a national emergency, freeing up federal resources.[663]
[664][665]

Trump conducts a COVID-19 press briefing with members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force on
March 15, 2020.

Beginning in mid-March, Trump held a daily press conference, joined by medical experts and other
administration officials,[666] sometimes disagreeing with them by promoting unproven treatments.
[667]
 Trump was the main speaker at the briefings, where he praised his own response to the
pandemic, frequently criticized rival presidential candidate Joe Biden, and denounced members of
the White House press corps.[666][668] On March 16, he acknowledged for the first time that the
pandemic was not under control and that months of disruption to daily lives and a recession might
occur.[669] On April 3, Trump announced that the federal government would use funds from
the CARES Act to pay hospitals for treatment of uninsured patients infected with the coronavirus.
[670]
 His repeated use of the terms "Chinese virus" and "China virus" to describe COVID-19 drew
criticism from the media, health experts, the WHO, and the Chinese government.[671][672][673]
By early April, as the pandemic worsened and amid criticism of his administration's response, Trump
refused to admit any mistakes in his handling of the outbreak, instead blaming the media,
Democratic state governors, the previous administration, China, and the World Health Organization.
[674]
 By mid-April 2020, some national news agencies began limiting live coverage of his daily press
briefings, with The Washington Post reporting that "propagandistic and false statements from Trump
alternate with newsworthy pronouncements from members of his coronavirus task force, particularly
coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases Director Anthony S. Fauci."[675] The daily coronavirus task force briefings ended in late April,
after at one of the briefings Trump suggested the dangerous idea of injecting a disinfectant to treat
COVID-19;[676] the idea was widely condemned by medical professionals.[677][678]
On April 1, 2020, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) extended
the PREDICT program for six months.[679][680] In September 2019, the Trump administration had ended
the 200-million-dollar early-warning program initiated by USAID in 2009;[681] dozens of
epidemiologists and wildlife veterinarians working for partner organizations were laid off.[682][683][684] The
program trained scientists in sixty foreign laboratories, including the Wuhan lab that first identified
the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes COVID-19, to detect and respond to viruses that have the
potential to cause pandemics.
On April 22, Trump signed an executive order restricting some forms of immigration to the United
States.[685] In April 2020, Republican-connected groups organized anti-lockdown protests against the
measures state governments were taking to combat the pandemic;[686][687] Trump encouraged the
protests on Twitter,[688] even though the targeted states did not meet the Trump administration's own
guidelines for reopening.[689] He first supported, then later criticized Georgia Governor Brian Kemp's
plan to reopen some nonessential businesses,[690] which was a key example of Trump often reversing
his stances in his communication during the COVID-19 pandemic.[691] Throughout the spring he
increasingly pushed for ending the restrictions as a way to reverse the damage to the country's
economy.[692]
In early May, Trump proposed that the coronavirus task force should be phased out, to
accommodate another group centered on reopening the economy. Amid a backlash, Trump publicly
said the coronavirus task force would continue on "indefinitely".[693] By the end of May, the
coronavirus task force's meetings were sharply reduced.[694]
For months, Trump refused to wear a face mask at press conferences and most public events,
contrary to his own administration's April 2020 guidance that Americans should wear masks in
public.[695] By June, Trump had stated that masks were a "double-edged sword", ridiculed Biden for
wearing one, continually emphasized that mask-wearing was optional, and suggested that wearing a
mask is a political statement against him personally.[696] Trump first wore a face mask in public in July
2020, at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.[695] In late spring and early summer, with
infections and death counts continuing to rise, he adopted a strategy of shifting the blame for his
administration's failure to the states.[697]
In July 2020, Trump announced the formal withdrawal of the United States from the WHO effective
July 2021, after alleging without evidence that the organization had enabled the Chinese
government's concealment of the origins of the pandemic.[698][699]
Despite record numbers of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. from mid-June onward and an increasing
percentage of positive test results, Trump continued to mostly downplay the pandemic, including his
claim in early July 2020 that 99% of COVID-19 cases are "totally harmless", a claim which
contradicts health officials in the U.S.[700] He also began insisting that all states should open schools
to in-person education in the fall, despite a July spike in reported cases.[701]
In June and July Trump said several times that the U.S. would have fewer cases of coronavirus if it
did less testing, that "if we did half the testing we would have half the cases," and that having a large
number of reported cases "makes us look bad".[702][703] When he told a June rally that "I said to my
people, 'Slow the testing down please,'" the White House attempted to portray the statement as not
serious and a joke.[704][705] Trump, however, contradicted the White House statements, saying that the
request was serious, and that "I don't kid".[704][705] In August 2020 the CDC quietly lowered its
recommendation for who should be tested, saying that people who have been exposed to the virus
but are not showing symptoms "do not necessarily need a test". Their previous recommendation had
been that people exposed to the virus should be "quickly identified and tested" even if they are not
showing symptoms, because asymptomatic people can still spread the virus.[706][707] Multiple sources
reported that the change in guidelines had been due to pressure from high up in the Trump
administration – "from the top down".[708][709]

Lafayette Square protester removal and photo op

Main article: Donald Trump photo op at St. John's Church

External video

 A video timeline of the crackdown on protesters

before Trump's photo op on YouTube (The

Washington Post) (12:12)

 Trump Stands In Front of Church Holding Bible

After Threatening Military Action Against Protesters on

YouTube (NBC) (2:40)

  President Trump walks across Lafayette Park to St.

John's Church on YouTube (C-SPAN) (7:46)

In a Rose Garden speech on June 1, 2020, Trump said he would deploy the U.S. military to stop
violence if a city or state refused to do so, and declared himself the ally of peaceful protestors,
following the police killing of George Floyd.[710][711][712] While he was speaking, federal law enforcement
officials used batons, rubber bullets, pepper spray projectiles,[713] stun grenades, and smoke to
remove a largely peaceful crowd from Lafayette Square, outside the White House. The removal had
been ordered by Attorney General William Barr.[713][714] Trump then walked to St. John's Episcopal
Church where the night before a small fire had been set in the basement nursery of its parish house.
[715]
 He posed for photographs holding a Bible, with Cabinet members and other officials later joining
him in photos.[713][714][716] Trump, who had attended services at the church three times since taking
office, did not enter the church or inspect the damage to the basement.[717][718][719]
Religious leaders condemned the treatment of protesters and the photo opportunity itself.[720][718] Many
retired military leaders and defense officials condemned Trump's proposal to use the U.S. military
against the protesters.[718][721] The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark A. Milley, later
apologized for accompanying Trump on the walk and thereby "creat[ing] the perception of the
military involved in domestic politics".[722]

Investigations
Further information: Timeline of investigations into Trump and Russia (transition, January–June
2017, July–December 2017, January–June 2018, July–December 2018, 2019, and 2020–2021)
The Crossfire Hurricane FBI investigation into possible links between Russia and the Trump
campaign was launched in mid-2016 during the campaign season. Since he assumed the
presidency, Trump has been the subject of increasing Justice Department and congressional
scrutiny, with investigations covering his election campaign, transition and inauguration, actions
taken during his presidency, along with his private businesses, personal taxes, and charitable
foundation.[68] The New York Times reported in May 2019 that there were 29 open investigations of
Trump, including ten federal criminal investigations, eight state and local investigations, and eleven
Congressional investigations.[723] In 2020, Jeffrey Toobin authored a book entitled, True Crimes and
Misdemeanors, the Investigation of Donald Trump, which is described as a condensation of
evidence against Trump, as if he were on trial.[724]
Hush payments
Main article: Stormy Daniels–Donald Trump scandal
See also: Legal affairs of Donald Trump §  Payments related to alleged affairs, and Karen McDougal
§  Alleged affair with Donald Trump
Stormy Daniels in 2010

American Media, Inc. (AMI) paid $150,000 to Playboy model Karen McDougal in August 2016,

[725]
 and Trump's attorney Michael Cohen paid $130,000 to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in
October 2016.[726] Both women were paid for non-disclosure agreements regarding their alleged
affairs with Trump between 2006 and 2007.[727] Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to breaking campaign
finance laws, saying he had arranged both payments at the direction of Trump in order to influence
the presidential election.[728] AMI admitted paying McDougal to prevent publication of stories that
might damage Trump's electoral chances.[729] Trump denied the affairs, and claimed he was not
aware of Cohen's payment to Daniels, but reimbursed him in 2017.[730][731] Federal prosecutors
asserted that Trump had been involved in discussions regarding non-disclosure payments as early
as 2014.[732] Court documents showed that the FBI believed Trump was directly involved in the
payment to Daniels, based on calls he had with Cohen in October 2016.[733][734] In July 2019, a federal
judge disclosed that prosecutors had stated in a court filing they had closed the investigation,[735] but
days later the Manhattan District Attorney subpoenaed the Trump Organization and AMI for records
related to the hush payments[736] and in August subpoenaed eight years of tax returns for Trump and
the Trump Organization.[737]
Russian interference
Main article: Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections
See also: Links between Trump associates and Russian officials, Steele dossier, and Trump-
Ukraine scandal
In January 2017, American intelligence agencies – the CIA, the FBI, and the NSA, represented by
the Director of National Intelligence – jointly stated with "high confidence" that the Russian
government interfered in the 2016 presidential election to favor the election of Trump.[738][739] In March
2017, FBI Director James Comey told Congress "the FBI, as part of our counterintelligence mission,
is investigating the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. That
includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump
campaign and the Russian government, and whether there was any coordination between the
campaign and Russia's efforts."[740]
The connections between Trump associates and Russia have been widely reported by the press.[741]
[742]
 One of Trump's campaign managers, Paul Manafort, had worked from December 2004 until
February 2010 to help pro-Russian politician Viktor Yanukovych win the Ukrainian presidency.
[743]
 Other Trump associates, including former National Security Advisor Michael T. Flynn and political
consultant Roger Stone, have been connected to Russian officials.[744][745] Russian agents were
overheard during the campaign saying they could use Manafort and Flynn to influence Trump.
[746]
 Members of Trump's campaign and later his White House staff, particularly Flynn, were in contact
with Russian officials both before and after the November election.[747][748] On December 29, 2016,
Flynn talked with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about sanctions that had been imposed the
same day; Flynn later resigned in the midst of controversy over whether he misled Pence.[749] The
Washington Post reported that Trump had told Kislyak and Sergei Lavrov in May 2017 he was
unconcerned about Russian interference in U.S. elections.[750]
Trump and his allies have promoted a conspiracy theory that Ukraine, rather than Russia, interfered
in the 2016 election – which has also been promoted by Russia to frame Ukraine.[751] After
the Democratic National Committee was hacked, Trump firstly claimed it withheld "its server" from
the FBI (in actuality there were more than 140 servers, of which digital copies were given to the FBI);
secondly that CrowdStrike, the company which investigated the servers, was Ukraine-based and
Ukrainian-owned (in actuality, CrowdStrike is U.S.-based, with the largest owners being American
companies); and thirdly that "the server" was hidden in Ukraine. Members of the Trump
administration have spoken out against the conspiracy theories.[752]
Special counsel investigation
Main articles: Special Counsel investigation (2017–2019) and Mueller report

The redacted version of the Mueller report released by the Department of Justice on April 18, 2019

On May 17, 2017, former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller, a

former director of the FBI, to serve as special counsel for the United States Department of
Justice (DOJ) investigating "any links and/or coordination between Russian government and
individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump, and any matters that arose or
may arise directly from the investigation",[753][754] thus taking over the existing "Crossfire Hurricane" FBI
investigation into the matter.[754] The special counsel also investigated whether Trump's dismissal of
James Comey as FBI director constituted obstruction of justice, and possible campaign ties to other
national governments.[755] Trump repeatedly denied any collusion between his campaign and the
Russian government.[756] Mueller also investigated the Trump campaign's possible ties to Saudi
Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Qatar, Israel, and China.[757]
Trump sought to fire Mueller on several occasions – in June 2017, December 2017, and April 2018 –
and close the investigation but backed down after his staff objected or after changing his mind.[758] He
bemoaned the recusal of his first Attorney General Jeff Sessions regarding Russia matters, and
believed Sessions should have stopped the investigation.[759]
On March 22, 2019, Mueller concluded his investigation and gave his report to Attorney General
William Barr.[760] On March 24, Barr sent a four-page letter to Congress summarizing the "principal
conclusions" in the report. He quoted Mueller as stating "while this report does not conclude that the
President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him." Barr further wrote that he and
Rosenstein did not see sufficient evidence to prove obstruction of justice.[761] Trump interpreted
Mueller's report as a "complete exoneration", a phrase he repeated multiple times in the ensuing
weeks.[762] Mueller privately complained to Barr on March 27 that his summary did not accurately
reflect what the report said,[763] and some legal analysts called the Barr letter misleading.[764]
A redacted version of the report was released to the public on April 18, 2019. The first volume found
that Russia interfered to favor Trump's candidacy and hinder Clinton's.[765] Despite "numerous links
between the Russian government and the Trump campaign", the prevailing evidence "did not
establish" that Trump campaign members conspired or coordinated with Russian interference.[766]
[767]
 The report states that Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election was illegal and
occurred "in sweeping and systematic fashion",[753] and it details how Trump and his campaign
welcomed and encouraged foreign interference believing they would politically benefit.[768][769][770]
The second volume of the Mueller report dealt with possible obstruction of justice by Trump.[771] The
report did not exonerate Trump of obstruction inasmuch as investigators were not confident of his
innocence after examining his intent and actions.[772] Investigators decided they could not "apply an
approach that could potentially result in a judgment that the President committed crimes", as they
could not indict a sitting president per an Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinion, and would not
accuse him of a crime when he cannot clear his name in court.[773] The report concluded that
Congress, having the authority to take action against a president for wrongdoing, "may apply the
obstruction laws".[774] Congress subsequently launched an impeachment inquiry following the Trump–
Ukraine scandal, albeit it ultimately did not press charges related to the Mueller investigation.
Associates
See also: Criminal charges brought in the Special Counsel investigation (2017–2019)
On August 21, 2018, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted on eight felony
counts of false tax filing and bank fraud.[775] Trump said he felt very badly for Manafort and praised
him for resisting the pressure to make a deal with prosecutors, saying "Such respect for a brave
man!" According to Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal attorney, Trump had sought advice about
pardoning Manafort but was counseled against it.[776]
On November 29, Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about
Trump's 2016 attempts to reach a deal with Russia to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen said
he had made the false statements on behalf of Trump, who was identified as "Individual-1" in the
court documents.[777]
The five Trump associates who have pleaded guilty or have been convicted in Mueller's investigation
or related cases include Paul Manafort, deputy campaign manager Rick Gates, foreign policy
advisor George Papadopoulos, Michael Flynn, and Michael Cohen.[778][779]
In February 2020, Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone was sentenced to over three years in jail,
after being convicted of lying to Congress and witness tampering regarding his attempts to learn
more about hacked Democratic emails during the 2016 election. The sentencing judge said Stone
"was prosecuted for covering up for the president".[780]
2019 congressional investigation
In March 2019, the House Judiciary Committee launched a broad investigation of Trump for possible
obstruction of justice, corruption, and abuse of power.[781] Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler sent
letters demanding documents to 81 individuals and organizations associated with Trump's
presidency, business, and private life, saying it is "very clear that the president obstructed justice".[782]
[783]
 Three other committee chairmen wrote the White House and State Department requesting details
of Trump's communications with Putin, including any efforts to conceal the content of those
communications.[783] The White House refused to comply, asserting that presidential communications
with foreign leaders are protected and confidential.[784]

Impeachment
Main article: Impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump
See also: Trump–Ukraine scandal
Impeachment by the House of Representatives
Main article: Impeachment of Donald Trump

Members of House of Representatives vote on two articles of impeachment (H.Res. 755), December 18, 2019

During much of Trump's presidency, Democrats were divided on the question of impeachment.
[785]
 Fewer than 20 representatives in the House supported impeachment by January 2019; after the
Mueller Report was released in April and special counsel Robert Mueller testified in July, this
number grew to around 140 representatives.[786]
In August 2019, a whistleblower filed a complaint with the Inspector General of the Intelligence
Community about a July 25 phone call between Trump and President of Ukraine Volodymyr
Zelensky, during which Trump had pressured Zelensky to investigate CrowdStrike and Democratic
presidential primary candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter, adding that the White House had
attempted to "lock down" the call records in a cover-up.[787] The whistleblower further stated that the
call was part of a wider pressure campaign by Giuliani and the Trump administration which may
have included withholding financial aid from Ukraine in July 2019 and canceling Vice President
Pence's May 2019 Ukraine trip.[788] Trump later confirmed having withheld military aid from Ukraine
and offered contradicting reasons for the decision.[789][790][791]
After the whistleblower complaint became known in September 2019, House speaker Nancy
Pelosi initiated a formal impeachment inquiry on September 24.[792][793] The Trump administration
subsequently released a memorandum of the July 25 phone call, confirming that after Zelensky
mentioned purchasing American anti-tank missiles, Trump asked Zelensky to investigate and to
discuss these matters with Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William
Barr.[787][794] According to the testimony of multiple administration officials and former officials, the
events were part of a broader effort to further Trump's personal interests by giving him an advantage
in the upcoming presidential election.[795]
Among several State Department employees testifying to congressional committees in October
2019, William B. Taylor Jr., the chargé d'affaires for Ukraine, testified that soon after arriving in
Ukraine in June 2019, he found that Zelensky was being subjected to pressure from a private
initiative directed by Trump and led by Giuliani. According to Taylor and others, the goal was to
coerce Zelensky into making a public commitment to investigate the company that employed Hunter
Biden, as well as rumors about Ukrainian involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.[796] He
said it was made clear that until Zelensky made such an announcement, the administration would
not release scheduled military aid for Ukraine and not invite Zelensky to the White House.[797]
[798]
 Zelensky denied that he felt pressured by Trump.[799]
On December 3, 2019, the House Intelligence Committee published a report authored by Democrats
on the committee, stating that "the impeachment inquiry has found that President Trump, personally
and acting through agents within and outside of the U.S. government, solicited the interference of a
foreign government, Ukraine, to benefit his reelection." The report said Trump withheld military aid
and a White House invitation to pressure Ukraine to announce investigations into Trump's political
rivals. Furthermore, the report described Trump was the only U.S. president thus far to have "openly
and indiscriminately" defied impeachment proceedings by telling his administration officials to ignore
subpoenas for documents and testimony.[800][801][802]:8,208 The Republicans of the House Committees had
released a draft of a countering report the previous day, saying in part that the evidence "does not
prove any of these Democrat allegations, and none of the Democrats' witnesses testified to having
evidence of bribery, extortion, or any high crime or misdemeanor."[803][804]
On December 13, 2019, the House Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to pass two articles
of impeachment: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.[805] After debate, the House of
Representatives impeached Trump with both articles on December 18.[806]
Impeachment trial in the Senate
Main article: Impeachment trial of Donald Trump
The Senate impeachment trial began on January 16, 2020.[807] On January 22, the Republican
Senate majority rejected amendments proposed by the Democratic minority to call witnesses and
subpoena documents; evidence collected during the House impeachment proceedings will be
entered into the Senate record automatically unless objected to on a case-by-case basis.[808]
For three days, January 22–24, the impeachment managers for the House presented their case to
the Senate. They cited evidence to support charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress,
and asserted that Trump's actions were exactly what the founding fathers had in mind when they
included an impeachment process in the Constitution.[809]
Responding over the next three days, the Trump legal team did not deny the facts as presented in
the charges but said Trump had not broken any laws or obstructed Congress.[810] They argued that
the impeachment was "constitutionally and legally invalid" because Trump was not charged with a
crime and that abuse of power is not an impeachable offense.[810]
On January 31, the Senate voted against allowing subpoenas to call witnesses or documents; 51
Republicans formed the majority for this vote.[811] Thus, this became the first impeachment trial in U.S.
history without witness testimony.[812] On February 5, Trump was acquitted of both charges in a vote
nearly along party lines, with Republican Mitt Romney being the only senator in U.S. history to cross
party lines by voting to convict on one of the charges.[813]
Following his acquittal, Trump began removing impeachment witnesses and political appointees and
career officials he deemed insufficiently loyal.[814]

Public profile
Approval ratings
Further information: Opinion polling on the Donald Trump administration
At the end of his second year, his two-year average Gallup approval rating was the lowest of any
president since World War II.[815] As of February 2020, his Gallup rating has ranged from a low of 35%
approval to a high of 49%.[816][817] His approval and disapproval ratings have been unusually stable.[818]
[819]

In Gallup's end-of-year poll asking Americans to name the man they admire the most, Trump placed
second to Obama in 2017 and 2018, and tied with Obama for most admired man in 2019.[820] Since
Gallup started conducting the poll in 1948,[821] Trump is the first elected president not to be named
most admired in his first year in office.[821]

Social media
Main article: Donald Trump on social media
Trump's presence on social media has attracted attention worldwide since he joined Twitter in March
2009. He communicated heavily on Twitter during the 2016 election campaign and has continued to
use this channel during his presidency. The attention on Trump's Twitter activity has significantly
increased since he was sworn in as president. As of May 2019, he is in the top 15 for most Twitter
followers at more than 60 million.[822]
By the end of May 2020, Trump had written about 52,000 tweets.[823] These include 22,115 tweets
over seven years before his presidential candidacy, 8,159 tweets during the 1 1⁄2 years of his
candidacy and transition period, and 14,186 tweets over the first three years of his presidency.[824]
Trump has frequently used Twitter as a direct means of communication with the public, sidelining the
press.[825] Since early in his presidency, his tweets have been considered official statements by the
president of the United States,[826] employed for announcing policy or personnel changes. In March
2018, Trump fired his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson by Twitter.[827]
Many of the assertions he has tweeted have been proven false.[828][829][830] In May 2020, Twitter began
tagging some Trump tweets with fact-checking warnings[823][831][832] and labels for violations of Twitter
rules.[833] Trump responded by threatening to "strongly regulate" or even "close down" social media
platforms.[823][834]

False statements
Main article: Veracity of statements by Donald Trump

Fact-checkers from The Washington Post,[835] the Toronto Star,[836] and CNN[837] compiled data on "false or

misleading claims" (orange background), and "false claims" (violet foreground), respectively.

As president, Trump has frequently made false statements in public speeches and remarks.[828][829]
[838]
 The misinformation has been documented by fact-checkers; academics and the media have
widely described the phenomenon as unprecedented in American politics.[839][840][253] This behavior was
similarly observed when he was a presidential candidate.[841][247] His falsehoods have also become a
distinctive part of his political identity.[840]
Trump uttered "at least one false or misleading claim per day on 91 of his first 99 days" in office,
according to The New York Times,[828] and 1,318 total in his first 263 days in office, according to the
"Fact Checker" political analysis column of The Washington Post.[842] By the Post's tally, it took Trump
601 days to reach 5,000 false or misleading statements and another 226 days to reach the 10,000
mark.[843] For the seven weeks leading up to the midterm elections, it rose to an average of thirty per
day[844] from 4.9 during his first hundred days in office.[845] The Post's reported tally is 20,055 as of
July 9, 2020,[835] with the 2019 total more than double the cumulative total of 2017 and 2018.[846]
Some of Trump's falsehoods are inconsequential, such as his claims of a large crowd size during his
inauguration.[847][848] Others have had more far reaching effects, such as Trump's promotion of
unproven antimalarial drugs as a treatment for COVID-19 in a press conference and on Twitter in
March 2020.[849][850][851] The claims had consequences worldwide, such as a shortage of these drugs in
the United States and panic-buying in Africa and South Asia.[852][853] The state of Florida obtained
nearly a million doses for its hospitals, even though most of them did not want the drug.[854] Other
misinformation, such as Trump's retweet of unverified videos of a far-right British nationalist group in
November 2017, serves a domestic political purpose, promoting policies on immigration and border
security.[855] As a matter of principle, Trump does not apologize for his falsehoods.[856]
Despite the frequency of Trump's falsehoods, the media have rarely referred to them as "lies".[857]
[858]
 The word suggests an attempt to deceive, hence if used could be construed as conveying an
opinion as to the intent behind the statement.[857][858] The word is fraught with political peril and has
usually been avoided out of respect for the presidential office.[857][858] Nevertheless, in August
2018 The Washington Post declared for the first time that some of Trump's misstatements
(statements concerning hush money paid to Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal)
were lies.[859][858] Former Secretary of State for George W. Bush, Colin Powell, who had never used the
word in reference to any previous president, said in June 2020 that Trump "lies all the time".[860]
Some view the nature and frequency of Trump's falsehoods as having profound and corrosive
consequences on democracy.[861] James Pfiffner, professor of policy and government at George
Mason University, wrote in 2019 that Trump lies differently from previous presidents, because he
offers "egregious false statements that are demonstrably contrary to well-known facts"; these lies are
the "most important" of all Trump lies. By calling facts into question, people will be unable to properly
evaluate their government, with beliefs irrationally settled by "political power"; this erodes liberal
democracy, wrote Pfiffner.[862]

Promotion of conspiracy theories

Before and throughout his presidency, Trump has promoted numerous conspiracy theories,
including "birtherism", the Clinton Body Count theory, and alleged Ukrainian interference in U.S.
elections.[863][864][865][866][867] Trump retweeted a July 2020 video by Stella Immanuel, a Texas physician,
promoting an unproven cure for the coronavirus. Her post was subsequently removed from several
social networks because it violated their rules on misinformation.[868]

Relationship with the press

Further information: Presidency of Donald Trump §  Relationship with the news media

Trump talking to the press, March 2017

Throughout his career, Trump has sought media attention. His interactions with the press turned into
what some sources called a "love-hate" relationship.[869][870][871] Trump began promoting himself in the
press in the 1970s.[872] Fox News anchor Bret Baier and former House speaker Paul Ryan have
characterized Trump as a "troll" who makes controversial statements to see people's "heads
explode".[873][874]
In the campaign, Trump benefited from a record amount of free media coverage, elevating his
standing in the Republican primaries.[246] New York Times writer Amy Chozick wrote in September
2018 that one of the reasons for Trump's appeal was his media dominance, which enthralls the
public. Chozick endorsed the view that with Trump "feeding something every night" there is a "can't
miss" nature for media coverage of him, akin to a reality show.[875]
Throughout his 2016 presidential campaign and his presidency, Trump has repeatedly accused the
press of intentionally misinterpreting his words and of being biased, calling them "fake news media"
and "the enemy of the people".[243][876] After winning the election, journalist Lesley Stahl recounted
Trump's saying he intentionally demeaned and discredited the media "so when you write negative
stories about me no one will believe you."[877]
Trump has privately and publicly mused about taking away critical reporters' White House press
credentials.[878] His administration moved to revoke the press passes of two White House reporters,
which were restored by the courts.[879] In 2019, a member of the foreign press reported many of the
same concerns as those of media in the U.S., expressing concern that a normalization process by
reporters and media results in an inaccurate characterization of Trump.[880] The Trump White House
held about a hundred formal press briefings in 2017, declining by half during 2018 and to two in
2019.[879]
In early 2020, the Trump campaign sued The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN for
alleged defamation.[881][882]

Racial views
Main article: Racial views of Donald Trump
Trump has made numerous comments and actions that have been characterized both within the
U.S. and abroad as racially charged or racist.[883] He has repeatedly denied he is racist, asserting: "I
am the least racist person there is anywhere in the world."[884] Many of his supporters say the way he
speaks reflects his rejection of political correctness, while others accept it because they share such
beliefs.[885][886] Scholars have discussed Trump's rhetoric in the context of white supremacy.[892]
Several studies and surveys have found that racist attitudes fueled Trump's political ascendance and
have been more important than economic factors in determining the allegiance of Trump voters.[886]
[893]
 Racist and islamophobic attitudes have been shown to be a powerful indicator of support for
Trump.[894] In a June 2018 Quinnipiac University poll, 49 percent of respondents believed he was
racist, while 47 percent believed he was not.[895] Additionally, 55 percent said he "has emboldened
people who hold racist beliefs to express those beliefs publicly".[896]
In 1975, he settled a 1973 Department of Justice lawsuit that alleged housing discrimination against
black renters.[75] He has also been accused of racism for insisting a group of black and Latino
teenagers were guilty of raping a white woman in the 1989 Central Park jogger case, even after they
were exonerated by DNA evidence in 2002. He has maintained his position on the matter into 2019.
[897]

Trump launched his political career in 2011 as a leading proponent of "birther" conspiracy
theories alleging that Barack Obama, the first black U.S. president, was not born in the United
States.[898][899] In April 2011, Trump claimed credit for pressuring the White House to publish the "long-
form" birth certificate, which he considered fraudulent, and later saying this made him "very popular".
[900][901]
 In September 2016, amid pressure, he acknowledged that Obama was born in the U.S. and
falsely claimed the rumors had been started by Hillary Clinton during her 2008 presidential
campaign.[902] In 2017, he reportedly still expressed birther views in private.[903]
According to an analysis in Political Science Quarterly, Trump made "explicitly racist appeals to
whites" during his 2016 presidential campaign.[904] In particular, his campaign launch speech drew
widespread criticism for claiming Mexican immigrants were "bringing drugs, they're bringing crime,
they're rapists."[905][906] His later comments about a Mexican-American judge presiding over a civil suit
regarding Trump University were also criticized as racist.[907]

Trump answers questions from reporters about the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.

Trump's comments in reaction to the 2017 Charlottesville far-right rally were interpreted, by some, as

implying a moral equivalence between white supremacist demonstrators and counter-protesters.[908]
In a January 2018 Oval Office meeting to discuss immigration legislation, he reportedly referred to El
Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, and African nations as "shithole countries".[909] His remarks were
condemned as racist worldwide, as well as by many members of Congress.[910][911]
In July 2019, Trump tweeted that four Democratic members of Congress – all four minority women,
three of them native-born Americans – should "go back" to the countries they "came from".[912] Two
days later the House of Representatives voted 240–187, mostly along party lines, to condemn his
"racist comments".[913] White nationalist publications and social media sites praised his remarks,
which continued over the following days.[914]

Comments about women

Trump has a history of insulting or demeaning women through comments on appearance or bodily
functions, comparisons to animals, or other sexist language.[915][916][917][918] Trump's behavior became a
campaign issue when he was questioned about it during the Republican Party presidential debate by
Fox News journalist and debate host Megyn Kelly on August 6, 2015. Trump brushed off Kelly's
question, implying she was treating him unfairly, but then on CNN the following day stated about
Kelly, "You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever."[919]
[920]
 The comment was widely viewed as referring to menstrual blood.[920] Trump denied the comment
was about menstruation and insisted that what he said was appropriate.[921][920] Trump incurred
bipartisan condemnation for his comments.[920]

Allegations of sexual misconduct

Main articles: Donald Trump sexual misconduct allegations and Donald Trump Access Hollywood
tape
At least twenty-three women have publicly accused Trump of sexual misconduct as of October 2019,
including his then-wife Ivana. There were allegations of rape, violence, being kissed and groped
without consent, looking under women's skirts, and walking in on naked women.[922][923] In 2016, he
denied all accusations, calling them "false smears", and alleged there was a conspiracy against him.
[924]

In October 2016, two days before the second presidential debate, a 2005 "hot mic" recording
surfaced in which Trump was heard bragging about kissing and groping women without their
consent, saying "when you're a star, they let you do it, you can do anything ... grab 'em by
the pussy."[925] The incident's widespread media exposure led to Trump's first public apology during
the campaign[926] and caused outrage across the political spectrum.[927]

Allegations of inciting violence

Some research suggests Trump's rhetoric causes an increased incidence of hate crimes.[928][929]
[930]
 During the 2016 campaign, he sometimes urged or praised physical attacks against protesters or
reporters.[931][932] Since then, some individuals or their attorneys have cited Trump's rhetoric as a
defense for their hate speech or violent actions.[933] In August 2019 it was reported that a man who
allegedly assaulted a minor for perceived disrespect toward the national anthem had cited Trump's
rhetoric in his own defense.[934] It was also reported in August 2019 that a nationwide review
conducted by ABC News had identified at least 36 criminal cases where Trump was invoked in direct
connection with violence or threats of violence. Of these, 29 were based around someone echoing
presidential rhetoric, while the other seven were someone protesting it or not having direct linkage.[935]

Popular culture
Main articles: Donald Trump in popular culture and Donald Trump in music
Trump has been the subject of comedians, Flash cartoon artists, and online caricature artists. He
has been parodied regularly on Saturday Night Live by Phil Hartman, Darrell Hammond, and Alec
Baldwin, and in South Park as Mr. Garrison. The Simpsons episode "Bart to the Future", written
during his 2000 campaign for the Reform party, anticipated a future Trump presidency. A dedicated
parody series called The President Show debuted in April 2017 on Comedy Central, while another
one called Our Cartoon President debuted on Showtime in February 2018.[936]
Trump's wealth and lifestyle had been a fixture of hip-hop lyrics since the 1980s, as he was named
in hundreds of songs, most often in a positive tone.[937][938] Mentions of Trump in hip-hop turned
negative and pejorative after he ran for office in 2015.[937]

Recognition
Further information: List of honors and awards received by Donald Trump
In 1983, Trump received the Jewish National Fund Tree of Life Award, after he helped fund two
playgrounds, a park, and a reservoir in Israel.[939][940] In 1986, he received the Ellis Island Medal of
Honor in recognition of "patriotism, tolerance, brotherhood and diversity",[941] and in 1995 was
awarded the President's Medal from the Freedoms Foundation for his support of youth programs.
[942]
 He has been awarded five honorary doctorates, but one was revoked by Robert Gordon
University in 2015 after Trump called for a Muslim ban, citing Trump's speech being "wholly
incompatible ... with the ethos and values of the university". The remaining awards are Lehigh
University's honorary doctorate of laws in 1988, Wagner College's honorary doctorate of humane
letters in 2004, and Liberty University's honorary doctorates of business and law in 2012 and 2017
respectively.[943]
In December 2016, Time named Trump as its "Person of the Year",[944] but Trump took issue with the
magazine for referring to him as the "President of the Divided States of America".[945] In the same
month, he was named Financial Times Person of the Year[946] and was ranked by Forbes the second
most powerful person in the world after Vladimir Putin.[947] As president, Trump received the Collar of
The Order of Abdulaziz al Saud from Saudi Arabia in 2017.[948]

Notes
1. ^ Jump up to:a b c This estimate is by Forbes in their annual ranking. Bloomberg Billionaires
Index listed Trump's net worth as $2.97 billion in June 2019,[56] and Wealth-X listed it as at least
$3.2 billion in April 2019.[57]
2. ^ Presidential elections in the United States are decided by the Electoral College. Each state
names a number of electors equal to its representation in Congress, and (in most states) all delegates
vote for the winner of the local state vote. Consequently, it is possible for the president-elect to have
received fewer votes from the country's total population (the popular vote). This situation has
occurred five times since 1824.
3. ^ Ronald Reagan was older upon his second-term inauguration.
4. ^ "In connection with that analysis, we addressed the factual question whether members of
the Trump Campaign 'coordinat[ed]' – a term that appears in the appointment order – with Russian
election interference activities. Like collusion, 'coordination' does not have a settled definition in
federal criminal law. We understood coordination to require an agreement – tacit or express –
between the Trump Campaign and the Russian government on election interference. That requires
more than the two parties taking actions that were informed by or responsive to the other's actions or
interests. We applied the term coordination in that sense when stating in the report that the
investigation did not establish that the Trump Campaign coordinated with the Russian government in
its election interference activities." Mueller Report, vol. I, p. 2
5. ^ Records on this matter date from the year 1824. The number "five" includes the elections
of 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016. Despite their similarities, some of these five elections had
peculiar results; e.g. John Quincy Adams trailed in both the national popular vote and the electoral
college in 1824 (since no one had a majority in the electoral college, Adams was chosen by the House
of Representatives), and Samuel Tilden in 1876 remains the only losing candidate to win an actual
majority of the popular vote (rather than just a plurality).[291][292]
6. ^ Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president.[303]
7. ^ Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Kosovo and
the Republic of Serbia. The Republic of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence on 17 February
2008, but Serbia continues to claim it as part of its own sovereign territory. The two
 governments began to normalise relations in 2013, as part of the 2013 Brussels Agreement. Kosovo
is currently recognized as an independent state by 98 out of the 193 United Nations member states. In
total, 113 UN member states recognized Kosovo at some point, of which 15 later withdrew their
recognition.

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